Ribera del Duero, 2009

The 2009 Aalto has a rich decadent, floral bouquet with licorice-tinged dark berries with earthy, almost peaty aromas underneath the carapace of fruit. The palate is full-bodied with dense tannins, but good acidity and very fine harmony and focus. There are hints of star anis toward the multi-layered finish that possesses great length. Superb. Drink 2018-2030. I made a brief but profitable visit to the splendid Aalto winery, the joint venture between ex-Vega Sicilia winemaker Mariano Garcia and Javier Zaccagnini. The impressive, modern-looking facility in which they first vinified the 2005 vintage is incomplete, at least in terms of non-essential accoutrements such as a car park or a tasting room. Javier told me that the five-story winery is based entirely on gravity transfer and is equipped with tools to make the best wine possible. They intend to add the less essential frills to the winery once they have repaid the loan, which is soon, apparently. Early vintages from 2000 came from outsourced fruit, though now their wine is sourced entirely from their own plots from several villages (around 110 in total). A tasting of individual lots of the nascent 2011 demonstrated their heterogeneity and so Aalto is a masterclass in the art of blending as much as terroir expression. The PS is only produced in the finest vintages from the best plots, which Javier analogized to picking the best players for the Spanish football team. Some older vintages were kindly opened for me as a reference point, although frankly speaking, I felt that they were denuded of the quality of recent vintages since they had to suffice with out-sourced fruit that was vinified in a rented winery back in those early days. Importer: Eric Solomon, European Cellars, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565