Ribera del Duero latest releases

A tasting of more than 300 wines, covering vintages of marked and contrasting identities, revealed an array of different profiles united by their approachability and ageworthiness

- INTRODUCTION INES SALPICO WINE SELECTION ALMUDENA ALBERCA MW & INES SALPICO

There was a feeling of careful optimism when Almudena Alberca MW and I arrived in Ribera del Duero in late May for a week of tasting and talking to producers for this report. The verdant hills, dotted with the bright, joyous colours of wild flowers, presented a very different picture from previous years of pastel-painted drought.

But there was a niggling doubt at the back of our minds. The impact of these challenging vintages, particularly in a region where concentration and tannins are stylistic trademarks, could be problematic.

Thankfully, our fears were unfounded. What we encountered in the glass were, instead, the end results of a willingness to embrace viticultural challenges and seek balance without avoiding the differing profiles and the power of the fruit brought in by each harvest. The contrasts were obvious but welcome.

Playing with time & style

Beyond the older vintages found in the Reserva and Gran Reserva categories, most of the wines submitted (released in the 12 months leading up to our tasting) were from the 2021 and 2022 harvests. The former, a cool ‘pre-drought’ vintage, had a potential for freshness and finesse that was leveraged by its best examples (the lower-scoring iterations, on the other hand, struggled with harsh tannins and the difficult integration of wood).

For the wines from 2022, concentration represented a potential problem, but many winemakers were able to translate it into a robust classicism, deftly using wood to add complexity to the intensity and ripeness.

In the glass, in both vintages the standout wines begin to show an expressive development that underscores both the identity of the vintages and the further ageing potential, albeit following very different trajectories - chiselled definition for the 2021s; opulent complexity for the 2022s.