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The Wine Advocate |
The 2023 Paraje Los Colmenares wants to capture the environment, not only the soil or grapes, and is composed of Tinto Fino only. It comes from three young-ish plots (planted in 1992 and 2010) in a valley called Valle de los Colmenares that is full of trees and aromatic plants of flowers, a place with a tradition of beehives and located at 856 to 889 meters in altitude. This shows a little more ripeness (I'm taking about perception, not really the 13.8% alcohol), but the profile is quite similar to the village wine; it has purity and elegance and is juicy, velvety, seamless and very pleasant, with a faint bitter twist in the finish. All the wines are fermented in the same way, by plot and with indigenous yeasts, and aged in oak containers of different shapes and sizes. 26,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2024.
Luis Gutierrez – The Wine Advocate; Jun 19, 2025 |
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View from the Cellar |
The 2023 Paraje Los Colmenares from Bodegas Arrocal is made from a blend of three
vineyards, all planted entirely to tempranillo and sitting at 890 meters on clay and limestone soils. These vines average thirty years of age and the grapes are harvested on the early side to keep the alcohol levels reasonable. The wine is aged for one year in French oak- a combination of Bordeaux casks and three thousand liter foudres. The wine comes in listed at fourteen percent octane in 2023 and delivers a refined bouquet plums, red and black cherries, coffee bean, cigar wrapper, a good base of soil tones and a framing of cedary French oak. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with a fine core of fruit, really lovely transparency down to the soil, ripe tannins and a long, nascently complex and very nicely balanced finish. This is an excellent wine in the making. 2035-2075+.
John Gilman, Issue 117, May– June 2025 |
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ARROCAL PARAJE LOS COLMENARES