Jesús Barquín | Deep, almost opaque cherry with purple rim. The nose offers notes of reduction and umami over a background of black berries. The palate is balanced with intense flavors of red berries and licorice drops, and a spicy note. A bit too tight now, perhaps, but it has good substance, and the tannins are already successfully resolved on the palate. | 91

Andrew Jefford | Saturated black, crack-o-doom black-red; you couldn’t shine a torch through this. Lovely pure scents of blackberry-damson fruits: sweet and lifted. A touch of reduction just pulls the pleasure back a millimeter or two? Had I not known the vintage here, I would have guessed this was a 2015. And then... a huge presence on the palate, yet with wonderful grace, poise, and lift, and billowing freshness. Beautiful wild-plum flavors; all the “mineral” interest you might want; sinewy resolution in the finish—a commanding wine, and a fine evangelist for its region. It seems to me to be the “biggest” wine in the whole tasting, and the only reason I have held back from the very top score is that slight note of reduction on the nose (and even then, I am aware that it might be a Bierzo soil-derived note). A great wine to squirrel away for a spell in the cellar, Iberophiles! | 93

Richard Mayson | Very deep, “black” opaque youthful color; open, ripe, heady but seemingly overextracted on the nose; big, bold, and similarly overextracted on the palate, with little or no finesse to show at any stage. Overburdened with tannin and rather jammy fruit. | 77