Description
Tasting Notes
The 2019 Hacienda Monasterio is floral, aromatic and precise, showing good but contained ripeness, with 15% alcohol. It’s a similar blend as in previous years—80% Tinto Fino, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot and 2% Malbec. This is the first vintage they used their new 10,000-liter oak vat, so there are more lots fermented separately and then blended to create this cuvée that shows very good balance, juiciness, concentration, structure and power but with freshness and balance. Their idea is to gradually replace the Merlot with Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, but that’s going to be a slow process. They have 12 different soils classified on the property, and in 2019 they selected different soils for each wine, something that was not done in 2017; there will be more changes in this direction in the future. 182,666 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2021. [94 Points, Luis Gutierrez – October 2021, robertparker.com]
Hacienda Monasterio is one of the great names in Ribera del Duero. Located close to the villages of Pesquera de Valbuena del Duero on the so-called Golden Mile, the estate covers 170 hectares, its vines all north facing, with plots of Cabernet, Merlot and Malbec complementing the Tinto Fino. Peter Sisseck, who actually lives on the estate, is a consultant winemaker here and it should therefore come as no huge surprise that the quality of the wines is of the highest rank. The wines (only Crianza and Reserva wines are produced) are matured in one-year-old Bordeaux casks and are consistently amongst the region’s finest.