Grapes of Spain

Elias Mora Reserva

"Our Reserva is reflection of both balance and elegance. Only the traditional ageing of 2 years can lead to the perfect blend of tertiary aromas that make a great wine." —

Victoria Benavides, winemaker

Appellation

Toro D.O.

Grape(s)

100% Tinta de Toro, from the single, 80-year-old Senda del Lobo vineyard

Altitude/Soil

750 meters / clay over limestone with sand and pebbles on the surface

Farming Methods

Practicing Organic

Harvest

Hand harvested, into small boxes at the end of September

Production

Whole berries undergo a 3 day cold soak, 14 fermentation with skins, malo-lactic conversion in stainless steel tanks

Aging

Aged for 24 months in French oak barrels, followed by additional aging in bottle prior to release.

Wine Name

Scores

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Reviews

Elias Mora Reserva 2010

95 (W&S) 94 (VM) 94 (WE) 93 (Peñin)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
95	Wine & Spirits Magazine	Toro’s hot and dry climate delivers wines with extremely concentrated, ripe flavors. Achieving balance is the challenge. Working with vines planted 70 years ago in Senda del Lobo, Mora has produced a tremendous wine that’s completely in equilibrium. The tannins have a certain softness that may come from the clay soils, even as their stature remains enormous – one of those bulls that every matador fears facing in the ruedo. The flavors of red and black fruit are mixed with notes of spice, herbs and soft mineral tones that bring seductive complexity. It fills the mouth, but also refreshes it with a vibrant acidity. Leave this wine for a decade in the cellar and then serve it with leg of lamb.
94	Vinous Media	(aged for two years in new French oak): Inky purple. Flamboyant aromas of cherry liqueur, blackberry, vanilla, Indian spices and dark chocolate, with a mineral flourish adding vivacity. Sweet, pliant and seamless on the palate, offering palate-staining black and blue fruit flavors and suggestions of floral pastilles, cola and mocha. Finishes with harmonious tannins and superb persistence, leaving sweet blueberry and lavender notes behind. This fruit was sourced from a plot of vines more than 70 years old, with the yield only around 15 hectoliters per hectare. 2020 – 2027
94	Wine Enthusiast	Cool, alluring aromas of ripe blackberry and fine oak are complete and highly attractive. A deep palate offers excellent balance, while flavors of cassis, blackberry, oak and delicate spices finish with power, elegance, length and an overriding sense of high quality. Drink through 2028. Editors' Choice September 2016
93	Guia Penin	Guia Penin 2016

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Elias Mora Reserva 2012

95 (WRO) 94 (IWR) 93 (VM)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
95	Wine Review Online	What a pleasure to find a high-end, current release wine from Spain that is in the market at a point in its development when it can be appreciated fully! This is a wine of great beauty and complexity, and one that collectors would be well advised to seek out, and yet its readiness to relish right now makes it a great option for those who don’t have cellars to buy to celebrate a special occasion. The fruit is 100% Tinta de Toro (a local strain of Tempranillo resulting from genetic mutation over time), sourced from the single, 80-year-old Senda del Lobo vineyard. It shows medium-plus body but no sense of heaviness and no hint of over-ripeness, with lovely accents of spices and faint hints of coffee beans, cured meat and pipe tobacco. There’s plenty of tannin to provide structure, but it is superbly fine in grain, resulting is very soft mouthfeel and a finish that is luxuriously long, without any foreshortening from astringency. Absolutely beautiful. Michael Franz - December 1, 2020
94	International Wine Report	The 2012 Toro 'Reserva' from Elias Mora was aged for 24 months in French oak prior to bottling. A brooding, glass staining wine, this begins with deep aromas of coffee grounds, eucalyptus, black cherry cordial and dark chocolate shavings. The palate is wonderfully balanced and smooth, showing moderate tannins. Black and blue fruits take shape in the glass supported by strong tension and notable weight. This marvelous wine is drinking incredibly well now but also has the potential for long-term cellaring. June 2018
93	Vinous Media	(fermented and aged in new French oak barrels for 17 months) Inky ruby. Deep-pitched, spice-accented dark berry and licorice aromas are lifted by a lively floral nuance. Supple and expansive in the mouth, offering densely packed blackberry, bitter chocolate and floral pastille flavors plus hints of spicecake and vanilla. The impressively long, seamless, dark-fruit-driven finish features fine-grained tannins and an echo of candied flowers.

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Elias Mora Reserva 2014

96 (WRO) 92+ (VfC) 92 (WE)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
96	Wine Review Online	So, you tell me: If a Spanish producer released two high-end wines, calling one “Gran Elias Mora” and the other “Elias Mora Reserva,” would you guess the first of the two was the more expensive flagship wine of the Bodega? If so, we’d both be wrong, having been habituated to ranking “Gran” above “Reserva” among Spanish wines. Either the producer has a rationale that escapes me, or maybe just a mischievous nature, but in any case, both wines are marvelous, and this one slightly my favorite of the two. This 2014 release is even better than the 2012, which I adored; this shows even more concentration and intensity, and though it is a bit less open for early enjoyment, it more than makes up for that with extraordinary aging potential (20+ years from now) based on physical density but also balanced acidity, tannin and oak. Sourced from the same single site as the “Gran” (the 80-year-old Senda del Lobo vineyard) but aged for 24 rather than 17 months in French oak, it combines exceptional depth of dark berry fruit flavor with very silky, fine-grained tannin that enables near-term enjoyment…even though this really deserves time in the cellar to blossom more fully. It shows no more oak than the “Gran” 2015, and the fruit seems slightly more restrained in terms of ripeness, but make no mistake — this is a big, powerful wine despite the fact that it is also graceful and beautifully proportioned. Sensational stuff. Michael Franz – Jul 20, 2021 Today’s Featured Wine
92+	View from the Cellar	The Reserva bottling from Elias Mora also hails solely from those eighty-five year-old vines in the Senda del Lobo vineyard. This wine is also aged entirely in new French oak barrels, for two years prior to bottling. The 2014 Reserva comes in listed at fifteen percent alcohol and offers up a deep, complex bouquet of sweet dark berries, saddle leather, woodsmoke, a superb base of chalky soil tones, cigar smoke, a touch of coffee grounds, garrigue, a hint of celery seed and a very well done foundation of nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is broad-shouldered, full-bodied and powerful in profile, with a rock solid core of fruit, firm, chewy tannins and a long, complex and impressively balanced finish. Again, this really carries its octane very well, and though there is some sense of backend heat, it is quite modest and I foresee this wine aging long and well. 2030-2075. John Gilman - Issue #91 / February 2021
92	Wine Enthusiast	Inky garnet in the glass, this wine has a nose of cassis, three-berry pie and clove. Lightweight tannins support a good mix of fruit and savory flavors, in particular blackberry, cranberry, mint and eucalyptus with a touch of oregano that head off into a toffee-inflected finish. Mike DeSimone – April 2022

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Elias Mora Reserva 2015

95 (WRO) 93 (VfC)

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Fact Sheet

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
95	Wine Review Online	This is a phenomenally delicious wine, and though it will surely improve for a decade or more, but one doesn’t need to hold it for anywhere near that long for it to be enjoyable enough to justify its asking price. Very rich and with a deep, soft core of dark fruit, this is surprisingly approach able and even charming for a wine that packs a very serious punch. The fruit is sourced entirely from 80-year-old vines in the Senda del Lobo vineyard, and deserves the 24 months of aging to which it was treated in French oak barrels. Tasted again 24 hours after it was first opened, it had neither improved nor lost any of its initial appeal, reaffirming my sense that this faces zero risk of going into decline anytime soon, but is also ready to enjoy with robust food. Michael Franz - Issue: June 6, 2023
93	View from the Cellar	The 2015 Reserva bottling from Elías Mora also hails from the eighty year-old vines in the La Senda Los Lobos vineyard. The wine is given fully two years of cask aging in French oak prior to bottling and then additional bottle aging in the cellars prior to release. The wine delivers superb aromatics in its constellation of sweet dark berries, cassis, woodsmoke, dark soil tones, a touch of roasted meats, balsam bough, lovely, understated tempranillo spices and a deft foundation of new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a fine core of fruit, still some backend tannin to resolve and lovely length and grip on the very well balanced finish. This still needs further bottle aging to properly soften up those backend tannins, but it is going to be a fine bottle once it is ready to drink. This is fifteen percent alcohol, but seems decidedly cooler in the mouth and is impeccably balanced. 2030-2080. John Gilman - Issue #103 January/February 2023.

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Elias Mora Reserva 2017

94 (OB) 93 (VfC)

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Fact Sheet

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
94	OwenBargreen.com	2017 Elias Mora ‘Reserva’ Toro- A stunning wine that is now at the seven year mark, the 2017 ‘Reserva’ is deeply colored in the glass. Coming from old vine Tinta de Toro, this offers freshly tilled salty soils, tar and tobacco leaf notes on the nose alongside a graphite edge. THe palate is dense and complex with refined tannins and a great sense of weight, showing off a beaitufl range of black fruit flavors. Elegant and sinfully good now, watch this evolve over the next fifteen years. Drink 2024-2039- Owen Bargreen - November 18, 2024
93	View from the Cellar	The 2017 Reserva bottling from Elías Mora is also a single vineyard bottling, made from eighty year-old tempranillo vines in the La Senda Los Lobos vineyard. The wine is aged for twenty-four months in French oak barrels prior to bottling and then additional bottle aging in the cellars prior to release. Like so many wines from Toro these days, the 2017 Reserva comes in at fifteen precent octane and delivers an impressively pure and sappy bouquet of black cherries, black plums, cigar wrapper, dark soil tones, chocolate, woodsmoke and toasty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and chewy, but with very impressive balance for its octane level. The wine is rock solid at the core, shows good underlying soil tones, ripe, firm tannins and really lovely balance on the long and nascently complex finish. This shows very little signs of backend heat, which is no small feat at fifteen percent alcohol. It will need plenty of bottle age to soften up, but eventually it will be a fine drink. 2035-2070. John Gilman; Issue 109, January – February 2024

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