Telmo Rodriguez - Matallana Ribera del Duero 2021

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The Ribera del Duero red 2021 Matallana comes from a challenging year but with very good potential for quality and quantity. It has grapes from different vineyards in five different villages on different soils, where they made a big selection to keep the very best grapes; they got 80,000 kilograms of grapes and ended up producing some 22,000 bottles. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and oak vats. It matured in French oak barrels of different sizes for 14 months. This is a superb classical Ribera del Duero with ripeness, concentration, balance and elegance and the freshness from a cooler year marked by the big snowstorm in January and a milder summer. It has 14.4% alcohol with a pH of 3.72 and 4.6 grams of acidity. It's very spicy and peppery, showy and extroverted, very spicy with some exotic notes of nutmeg, ripe wild berries, violets and herbs. It's medium to full-bodied with very chalky tannins and is tasty, almost salty. 22,450 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2023.

Telmo Rodríguez makes wines in Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Toro in the Duero zone. They are betting hard on Ribera del Duero and have just planted (in April 2024) a new nine-hectare vineyard in the village of Fuentemolinos and are hoping to get their winery going in the village of Sotillo de la Ribera.

Colin Hay (The Drinks Business)

Jane Anson