92/100 Punkte Robert Parker June 2019

The 2016 El Espinal is a Maturana Tinta produced in a joint venture with Miguel Ángel Mato, who owns the vineyard in San Vicente de a Sonsierraand works with his horse for others like the Eguren family and BenjamínRomeo. This is the first vintage of this unusual wine made from vinesregrafted from Garnacha to Maturana Tinta. I also tasted the 2017 nextto this 2016 from a higher-yielding year; the wine had a shorter élevage(12 months in barrel), as the wine is a bit lighter. They didn't reallywant the green pepper the variety can easily deliver and waited a bitlonger to pick the grapes and get aromas of white pepper, bay leaf andlicorice, and this has less herbal notes than the 2017. It mixes somedark cherries with those varietal notes. This is drinking nicely todayand might not be as long lived as the 2017.