{"title":"SPAIN","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eHome to Tempranillo, Cava and Sherry, Spain offers wines that range from elegant and age-worthy to vibrant and modern, shaped by diverse climates and ancient vineyards.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"artazu-santa-cruz-de-artazu-2017","title":"Artazu Santa Cruz de Artazu 2017","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2017 Santa Cruz de Artazu is a lighter style, more elegant with better freshness (it has a very good pH), keeping the typicity of the Garnacha from the zone. This comes from small plots planted with old vines that survived the \"concentración parcelaria\" (a land consolidation exercise that destroyed the majority of old vineyards). It has a fine palate with vibrant flavors, great purity and very integrated oak. Really great showing for this bottling, one of the best I remember. It matured in 500-liter oak barrels for 10 months. It's very drinkable. 6,000 bottles were filled in September 2019.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThe Artazu wines, Artadi's project in Navarra, were already published with the full Artadi portfolio in December 2019, but they are also included here in their context. However, I have omitted the notes of the wines sold in cans under the brand Ah-So. Furthermore, I later visited the vineyards and tasted them again.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40977788305576,"sku":"SPN00490079","price":85.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_75dbd299-9379-4154-a48c-3fbe8fce3234.png?v=1781764348"},{"product_id":"artazu-artazuri-rose-2020","title":"Artazu Artazuri Rose 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e89 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI think the first wine I tried from Spain from the fateful 2020 is the 2020 Artazuri Garnacha Rosado. It was produced with the grapes from the younger vines in the villages of Artazu and San Martín de Unx and was planted with a massal selection of each village, and it fermented at low temperature to keep the floral and fruit aromas. It has moderate alcohol with good freshness, making it easy to drink, aromatic and primary. They harvested early in a year that was wet and warm and with fungal diseases (especially mildew), so it's a bit of an irregular vintage. This year, they tried to obtain a paler wine with less maceration, more floral and with a little more acidity with some citrus hints. It has medium structure and volume, but it has gained in drinkability. This is also sold in cans under the brand Ah-So. 50,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2020.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the wines from Artazu with the rest of the Artadi group portfolio, and I include the notes here for context and completeness. I will taste the new vintage in early 2022.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44427675336872,"sku":"SPN00490101","price":39.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_67a2705b-3b14-46f9-814d-e83e274325fb.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artazu-pasos-de-san-martin-2018","title":"Artazu Pasos de San Martin 2018","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2018 Pasos de San Martín is the wine produced with Garnacha from the cooler zone of San Martín de Unx in Navarra where they have 11 hectares of 40-year-old vines on a southeast exposure where the soils are rich in limestone and silt. As has been the case in the last few years with Artadi's reds, it had a short élevage of only nine months in 500-liter French oak barrels, including malolactic. The climate and soils are quite similar to Rioja, maybe a bit more extreme here, cooler in cool vintages, warmer in warm years, so this 2018 shows a little like the range from Rioja, elegant and with more freshness. It's quite pure, clean and with very fine tannins. 18,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2021. They skipped the 2017 vintage of this wine.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThe López de la Calle family described 2018 in Navarra as a year with a long winter marked by the snowfall of the 28th of February that ensured a good water reserve throughout the whole cycle. It rained a lot during spring, 200 liters in March, April and May, and that caused some fungal disease that reduced yields in some zones but without affecting the foliar mass, so ripening was perfect and without botrytis. They could wait for the optimal harvesting dates with very healthy grapes. Similar to Rioja, 2019 was a low-yielding year marked by some hailstorms.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44895148179624,"sku":"SPN00490141","price":63.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_56d97076-e357-42dc-9aa9-0a89efaefb95.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-hoya-2020","title":"Artadi La Hoya 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2020 La Hoya is earthy and tannic and has the chalky sensation from the limestone soils. This comes from a large vineyard of over three hectares that was initially sold exclusively in the UK but is now more widely available. 3,600 bottles were filled in June 2022.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49192194277544,"sku":"SPN00490108","price":125.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_cac7ad59-d0c6-4355-a13b-8b308352c43a.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-san-lazaro-2020","title":"Artadi San Lazaro 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e95+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI was looking forward to the bottled version of the 2020 San Lázaro, my favorite of the \"new\" single-vineyard bottlings from a plot that previously contributed to the Pagos Viejos. The sample I tasted last time showed big bones and a slim structure, an ethereal wine that was long and floral, spicy and fresh. In 2020, they used a little bit of white grapes, and there's even more in 2021, when they decided to systematically use 2% to 4% of white grapes in the vineyards where the grapes are interplanted with the Tempranillo. This wine has finesse and is slender and delicate, with something ethereal about it, quite open and a little more advanced, with some unexpected toasty notes. Here, the majority of barrels were 500-liter ones (three 500-liter and two 225-liter barrels). 2,000 bottles were filled in June 2021.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49192210661544,"sku":"SPN00490110","price":172.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_38845b9c-166c-419b-907d-a56b01fc7e7c.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-valdegines-2021","title":"Artadi Valdegines 2021","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2021 Valdeginés showed much better than the unbottled sample I tasted last time. The wine is a little austere, very integrated and harmonious, with fine tannins. It feels very young and undeveloped but with high potential, with all the elements and balance to age nicely in bottle. The 2021s are going to need time in bottle. Carlos López de Lacalle says Valdeginés is a serious wine but with a jovial palate, with energy and charm. 15,000 bottles were produced, which is the largest production of the single-vineyard wines. It was bottled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49193093071016,"sku":"SPN00490127","price":92.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_bfa41cdf-ffb8-4d34-b00f-10d6c4c47b11.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artazu-santa-cruz-de-artazu-2019","title":"Artazu Santa Cruz de Artazu 2019","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe red 2019 Santa Cruz de Artazu was produced with Garnacha grapes from old vineyards on the slopes of the village of Artazu from a low-yielding vintage marked by some hailstorms. It fermented in open-top vats for 10 to 12 days after a 48-hour cold soak and matured in 500-liter French oak barrels for nine months, including malolactic. It's 14.65% alcohol and has good acidity and freshness coming through as soft and tender. Garnacha takes heat quite well in Navarra. They harvest in October, and the wine shows riper fruit; there's more complexity and structure than the wine from San Martín, which tends to be the case from the low yields of the very old vines. It's juicy and creamy, round with sweet, silky tannins. 4,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2021.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThe López de la Calle family described 2018 in Navarra as a year with a long winter marked by the snowfall of the 28th of February that ensured a good water reserve throughout the whole cycle. It rained a lot during spring, 200 liters in March, April and May, and that caused some fungal disease that reduced yields in some zones but without affecting the foliar mass, so ripening was perfect and without botrytis. They could wait for the optimal harvesting dates with very healthy grapes. Similar to Rioja, 2019 was a low-yielding year marked by some hailstorms.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49193156968616,"sku":"SPN00490146","price":85.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_ea98bc57-c39e-4a9d-b5ee-c6f898546939.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-vinas-de-gain-blanco-2020","title":"Artadi Vinas de Gain Blanco 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate,  Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe only white produced here is the 2020 Viñas de Gaín Blanco, which is balsamic and aromatic, floral and herbaceous, from a fresher and more elegant vintage. It fermented with some skins to give it complexity and volume, but he has reduced the time the wine is in contact with the skins, and this year, the wine finished part of the fermentation in used 600-liter demi-muids and was kept in stainless steel with lees for two years. They have stopped racking the white, and they feel it keeps a livelier character. It has the profile of the traditional Rioja whites with a modern twist, cleaner, more focused and precise. It has a moderate 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.31 and 6.05 grams of sugar, fresh and vibrant. It's beautiful, possibly the best year for the white and a year they think was better for the white than for the reds. Bravo! 10,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2022.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55450930217128,"sku":"SPN00490178","price":66.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_c88d07a4-d819-48d8-a574-c2a65fe0601e.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-vinas-de-gain-blanco-2019","title":"Artadi Vinas de Gain Blanco 2019","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe white 2019 Viñas de Gaín Blanco, which wears the subtitle Vineyard Selection, comes from a number of vineyards in Laguardia and Elvillar at 450 to 700 meters in altitude on clay and limestone soils. 2019 was warm and dry, and they still managed to keep the wine at 13% alcohol and with a pH of 3.33. It shows quite austere and faintly balsamic, with notes of waxy apples and a vibrant palate with chalky austerity, clean, pure and dry. Impressive. 17,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2021 after two years and four months in tank with the lees.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55450930282664,"sku":"SPN00490162","price":66.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_f1067000-6563-44c2-9b04-00029aeca4fa.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-el-carretil-2020","title":"Artadi El Carretil 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e97 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2020 El Carretil is fresh and fruit-driven with very fine, chalky tannins from the very high limestone and silt content in the soil, and it has the elegance of the sand component of the \"salagón\" soils. I found very good precision and elegance in this wine, from a vineyard that behaves well in less warm years and suffers in dry conditions. However, I found the wine to be spectacular, with balance and freshness, and it's very clean and fine-boned. It should develop nicely in bottle. 5,000 bottles were filled in June 2022.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451001094312,"sku":"SPN00490112","price":245.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_cd1cee58-da42-4f09-9008-3e82e1b19261.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-el-carretil-2021","title":"Artadi El Carretil 2021","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e95-97 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe nose of the 2021 El Carretil is an explosion of flowers; it's aromatic, perfumed, open, expressive and super elegant, clean, nuanced and showy. It has a seamless palate with very fine tannins, ethereal, with lots of energy and light. This has to be the finest vintage of El Carretil to date. Today, this hits the bull's-eye. Bravo! 5,300 bottles were filled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451001225384,"sku":"SPN00490134","price":245.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_de5bdd1f-c4db-4366-a209-8b05944576ad.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-el-carretil-2023","title":"Artadi El Carretil 2023","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e95-97 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe unbottled 2023 El Carretil was in stainless steel after having completed the first winter in demi-muids and (part of) the second one in oak vat, where it should be until it's bottled. Despite a sensation of higher ripeness from the nose, it has very good finesse and a very chalky mouthfeel, textured, with grip and clout. It has lower alcohol, 14.35% (and, apparently, the 2024 will be around 14%). There should be around 5,000 bottles of this 2023 when it's bottled. It should be bottled in May or June 2025.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451008893096,"sku":"SPN00490175","price":245.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_9b970068-8973-4670-8b2e-1435af390575.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-el-carretil-2020-1-5l","title":"Artadi El Carretil 2020 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e97 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2020 El Carretil is fresh and fruit-driven with very fine, chalky tannins from the very high limestone and silt content in the soil, and it has the elegance of the sand component of the \"salagón\" soils. I found very good precision and elegance in this wine, from a vineyard that behaves well in less warm years and suffers in dry conditions. However, I found the wine to be spectacular, with balance and freshness, and it's very clean and fine-boned. It should develop nicely in bottle. 5,000 bottles were filled in June 2022.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451010105512,"sku":"SPN00490115","price":518.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_dffa2b98-c153-4d74-8ff7-61a73ddf7b1f.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-el-carretil-2021-1-5l","title":"Artadi El Carretil 2021 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e95-97 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe nose of the 2021 El Carretil is an explosion of flowers; it's aromatic, perfumed, open, expressive and super elegant, clean, nuanced and showy. It has a seamless palate with very fine tannins, ethereal, with lots of energy and light. This has to be the finest vintage of El Carretil to date. Today, this hits the bull's-eye. Bravo! 5,300 bottles were filled in May 2023.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451012858024,"sku":"SPN00490138","price":518.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_e3321d57-8451-4733-adf4-9a1411c7eb9d.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-poza-de-ballesteros-2020","title":"Artadi La Poza de Ballesteros 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2020 La Poza de Ballesteros is a powerful and ripe wine with 14.66% alcohol and ripe fruit, volume and round and dense tannins. It's from a 1.18-hectare plot of vines planted in 1960 on deep brown soils, and the exposition to the afternoon sun and the deeper soils gives the grapes more ripeness—and this wine is always a riper expression of Tempranillo. It's unctuous, with contained ripeness, fresher fruit and fine, slightly dusty tannins. It's balsamic, clean and fresh with some aniseed and fennel aromas and a silky, gentle palate, with less ripe sensations than in past vintages. 3,800 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2022 and in barrel until June 2021.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451050213544,"sku":"SPN00490111","price":158.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_2adb62ee-9c03-486f-9c5c-8354decf3197.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-poza-de-ballesteros-2021","title":"Artadi La Poza de Ballesteros 2021","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93-95 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThere is a note of fennel in the 2021 La Poza de Ballesteros, a wine that is more open, approachable and round, with a gentler palate. It feels comfortable and velvety. This is the opposite slope to Valdeginés, a soil with more sand. 4,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451050475688,"sku":"SPN00490133","price":158.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_934161d2-e448-4073-a5a6-2df426c13998.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-poza-de-ballesteros-2022","title":"Artadi La Poza de Ballesteros 2022","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2022 La Poza de Ballesteros is always the wine I find to be riper, even if the ripeness is more and more controlled. It's ripe but not heavy. It's from an east-facing vineyard, but the deep soils have good hydric reserves and provide freshness. It has balance, 14.66% alcohol, a pH of 3.68 and 4.83 grams of acidity. It's juicy and more fruit-driven but starting to show the limestone chalkiness. 4,000 bottles were filled in June 2024.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451050868904,"sku":"SPN00490154","price":158.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_ea442ffe-3f57-4804-9a26-b51ede7e3a4a.png?v=1781764355"},{"product_id":"artadi-san-lazaro-2019","title":"Artadi San Lazaro 2019","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e95-96 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2019 San Lázaro delivered what the sample promised back in January. It comes from one of my favorite vineyards, a 1.62-hectare plot in Laguardia just below Bodegas Palacio that was planted in 1956 on limestone and sand soils that produce elegant wines. In the past, the vineyard contributed to the Pagos Viejos blend that has been bottled separately since 2016 and has quickly taken a leading position in the Artadi hierarchy. The wine is complex and nuanced, serious and insinuating, with fine aromas of herbs and flowers and a lively and balanced palate with ultra fine, abundant and chalky tannins. Superb! 2,000 bottles were filled in June 2021.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the wines from Artadi as part of their annual portfolio tasting when I covered the bottled 2019s and barrel samples of (some of) the 2020s. I've reproduced the notes and comments here for context and completeness of the article.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2019 was slightly drier and warmer than average, and there was an episode of hail as late as August 25th, which seriously affected the vineyards located in the south of Laguardia and Elvillar; the plots of San Ginés, Valmayor, Cuerdamayor, La Ceposilla, Parredonda and Las Ventas, among others, registered significant damage. They started picking the whites on September 20 and finished the last of the reds on October 10. The grapes were clean and healthy, with 35% less grapes than in 2018.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2020 was a challenging year with a loss of 30% of the crops from mildew. All of their vineyards are now certified organic, and they suffered more because of that. It's a relatively fresh vintage, cooler than 2019 but without its complexity, with more ethereal, approachable and fruit-driven wines with red rather than black fruit. Carlos de la Calle compared 2020 to 2007, a subtle and fruit-driven vintage. 2021 goes back to the fresher and more energetic style of 2018.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThe range keeps growing, and in 2020, they started making white single-vineyard wines (one 500-liter barrel of each), but they still don't know if they are going to be sold or if they are going to drink them themselves. There might be Carretil and El Pisón whites!\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451067973800,"sku":"SPN00490083","price":172.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_11cec89d-c808-41ba-ad14-aaaa8d90f825.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-san-lazaro-2021","title":"Artadi San Lazaro 2021","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e96-98 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eA first bottle of the 2021 San Lázaro felt austere, serious and a little closed, but a second one was a lot more expressive and elegant but not quite reaching the expressiveness of the 2021 El Carretil that today stole the show. This is subtle, delicate and svelte, a wine of finesse (but never without power), harmonious and complete. 4,000 bottles were filled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451070660776,"sku":"SPN00490132","price":172.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_a0f0988f-2a19-4b39-8779-2de7bad54c6e.png?v=1781764352"},{"product_id":"artadi-san-lazaro-2021-1-5l","title":"Artadi San Lazaro 2021 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e96-98 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eA first bottle of the 2021 San Lázaro felt austere, serious and a little closed, but a second one was a lot more expressive and elegant but not quite reaching the expressiveness of the 2021 El Carretil that today stole the show. This is subtle, delicate and svelte, a wine of finesse (but never without power), harmonious and complete. 4,000 bottles were filled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451070955688,"sku":"SPN00490137","price":349.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_9e2f0294-35e8-45f0-b1c4-27ae3af80138.png?v=1781764348"},{"product_id":"artadi-san-lazaro-2022","title":"Artadi San Lazaro 2022","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e97 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2022 San Lázaro delivers all that the unbottled sample last year promised (and more!). There's always an ethereal character here, an elegance and stony, chalky minerality that I like very much. It's not a shy wine at 14.6% alcohol, with a pH of 3.59 and 4.89 grams of acidity, and it's medium-bodied and elegant, with lots of finesse and very chalky and fine tannins. This vineyard has shallow soils, similar to El Pisón but with more sand. It's a strong contender for best wine after El Pisón. They filled 4,000 bottles in June 2024.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451071086760,"sku":"SPN00490153","price":172.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_4b6f924d-ca36-4b4d-9883-c875301ad25b.png?v=1781764348"},{"product_id":"artadi-valdegines-2021-1-5l","title":"Artadi Valdegines 2021 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e94+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2021 Valdeginés showed much better than the unbottled sample I tasted last time. The wine is a little austere, very integrated and harmonious, with fine tannins. It feels very young and undeveloped but with high potential, with all the elements and balance to age nicely in bottle. The 2021s are going to need time in bottle. Carlos López de Lacalle says Valdeginés is a serious wine but with a jovial palate, with energy and charm. 15,000 bottles were produced, which is the largest production of the single-vineyard wines. It was bottled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451199013032,"sku":"SPN00490128","price":183.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_2a0bca26-cdd9-43a9-a54e-a59bfca8f8d0.png?v=1781764348"},{"product_id":"artadi-valdegines-2022","title":"Artadi Valdegines 2022","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2022 Valdeginés comes from a warm and dry year and fermented in open-top oak vats and matured in barrels and nine months in demi-muids. However, the wine has more freshness than expected, and the nose comes through as fresher than that of the 2023 I tasted next to it. This vineyard has an east exposure and soil with a higher percentage of clay, with limestone one meter down that gives it punch. It has very fine, chalky tannins. Like many 2022s, it finished in the higher part of the estimated window last year. 14,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2024.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451207631016,"sku":"SPN00490148","price":92.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_ab751c99-5a06-40af-abb3-3cc29ab48391.png?v=1781764348"},{"product_id":"artadi-valdegines-2022-1-5l","title":"Artadi Valdegines 2022 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2022 Valdeginés comes from a warm and dry year and fermented in open-top oak vats and matured in barrels and nine months in demi-muids. However, the wine has more freshness than expected, and the nose comes through as fresher than that of the 2023 I tasted next to it. This vineyard has an east exposure and soil with a higher percentage of clay, with limestone one meter down that gives it punch. It has very fine, chalky tannins. Like many 2022s, it finished in the higher part of the estimated window last year. 14,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2024.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451211530408,"sku":"SPN00490149","price":183.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_e4dbae73-e881-4ef2-8c2b-8a539152e9ec.png?v=1781764348"},{"product_id":"artadi-valdegines-2022-3l","title":"Artadi Valdegines 2022 (3L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2022 Valdeginés comes from a warm and dry year and fermented in open-top oak vats and matured in barrels and nine months in demi-muids. However, the wine has more freshness than expected, and the nose comes through as fresher than that of the 2023 I tasted next to it. This vineyard has an east exposure and soil with a higher percentage of clay, with limestone one meter down that gives it punch. It has very fine, chalky tannins. Like many 2022s, it finished in the higher part of the estimated window last year. 14,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2024.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451214381224,"sku":"SPN00490150","price":371.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_d66a2782-3449-4eec-990c-c0a26fdff076.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-hoya-2021","title":"Artadi La Hoya 2021","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e95 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eThe 2021 La Hoya was one of the surprises. The wine has grown a lot and feels serious and elegant, open and expressive, showy and a little exuberant, with a very elegant palate too, seamless, with fine tannins, precise, focused and clean. They feel the vineyard is improving, getting better balanced and delivering better and better grapes and wines with less rusticity and more finesse. 4,000 bottles were filled in May 2023.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451226603688,"sku":"SPN00490130","price":125.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_e829a252-2dfc-4ed3-80df-768e98878018.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-hoya-2021-1-5l","title":"Artadi La Hoya 2021 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e95 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021 La Hoya was one of the surprises. The wine has grown a lot and feels serious and elegant, open and expressive, showy and a little exuberant, with a very elegant palate too, seamless, with fine tannins, precise, focused and clean. They feel the vineyard is improving, getting better balanced and delivering better and better grapes and wines with less rusticity and more finesse. 4,000 bottles were filled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451232927912,"sku":"SPN00490135","price":256.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_25344748-4a3f-40e0-9da5-628190f1358d.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-hoya-2022","title":"Artadi La Hoya 2022","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2022 La Hoya delivers what it promised last year, after spending two winters in oak, the first one in 500- and 600-liter barrels and the second one in foudre. It's from an east-facing 3.6-hectare vineyard planted in 1965 on deep and dark soils on hard sandstone, in a hole (that's what the name means), possibly a lake in the distant past. It combines the fruit of the sandstone with the clout of the silt and is expressive, aromatic and open. It's clean, harmonious, quite approachable and quite round, with good ripeness and 14.6% alcohol but with good overall freshness. 5,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2024.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451235975336,"sku":"SPN00490151","price":125.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_e970ed2a-3e8d-45d8-a879-cab979eba540.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-quintanilla-2020","title":"Artadi Quintanilla 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI also tasted the 2020 Quintanilla, a wine that looked really superb from barrel, floral, aromatic and elegant, with round tannins, fine-boned, balanced and harmonious. This is from a 1.99-hectare plot in Elvillar that was planted in 1951 on limestone and clay soils with a sandstone mother rock at some 75 centimeters from the top. It's very aromatic with notes of cinnamon, a lactic touch and a medium-bodied palate with very fine, abundant and chalky tannins. 2,500 bottles were filled in June 2021.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451243184296,"sku":"SPN00490109","price":125.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_6c474c0e-4fa1-4e69-9920-b0e4914fb04e.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-quintanilla-2020-1-5l","title":"Artadi Quintanilla 2020 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e93+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI also tasted the 2020 Quintanilla, a wine that looked really superb from barrel, floral, aromatic and elegant, with round tannins, fine-boned, balanced and harmonious. This is from a 1.99-hectare plot in Elvillar that was planted in 1951 on limestone and clay soils with a sandstone mother rock at some 75 centimeters from the top. It's very aromatic with notes of cinnamon, a lactic touch and a medium-bodied palate with very fine, abundant and chalky tannins. 2,500 bottles were filled in June 2021.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451243511976,"sku":"SPN00490114","price":251.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_d6d0e2e8-6b9b-42ec-bdf1-daccc67573c8.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-quintanilla-2021","title":"Artadi Quintanilla 2021","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2021 Quintanilla comes from a very white soil that is very rich in limestone. The wine has a lot of tension and tannins with more grip than La Hoya. It has balance but feels dynamic and has very good depth. It has notes of licorice and a minty touch. It feels really energetic and nicely textured, with a fine thread on the palate and some austerity, similar to La Hoya (they are only 100 meters apart), but La Hoya is juicier and this is more serious and austere. 3,000 bottles were filled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451243839656,"sku":"SPN00490131","price":125.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_53f75b67-e24c-41d4-8aec-b650fc7fcb72.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-quintanilla-2021-1-5l","title":"Artadi Quintanilla 2021 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e94+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2021 Quintanilla comes from a very white soil that is very rich in limestone. The wine has a lot of tension and tannins with more grip than La Hoya. It has balance but feels dynamic and has very good depth. It has notes of licorice and a minty touch. It feels really energetic and nicely textured, with a fine thread on the palate and some austerity, similar to La Hoya (they are only 100 meters apart), but La Hoya is juicier and this is more serious and austere. 3,000 bottles were filled in May 2023.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451278737576,"sku":"SPN00490136","price":251.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_f57fdf36-f7e2-4ef5-94aa-92975f98a465.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-quintanilla-2022","title":"Artadi Quintanilla 2022","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eQuintanilla, from Elvillar, is usually quite ripe, and the bottled 2022 Quintanilla is darker and feels riper than the 2023 sample I tasted next to it. This vineyard very rich in limestone, and the vigor is limited and tends toward stress, which happened in 2022. It has some slightly dusty tannins and is not as round or ripe as other plots with marked chalkiness from the limestone in the soils. It has 14.68% alcohol and a pH of 3.65. There are 4,000 bottles of this. It was bottled in June 2024.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451305017512,"sku":"SPN00490152","price":125.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_f413088c-08fc-4632-bd07-0972aa261fd8.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-quintanilla-2023","title":"Artadi Quintanilla 2023","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2023 Quintanilla shows the finesse that the sample promised last year. This is in the higher part, and the soil is quite shallow; it's white at 80 centimeters. The grapes ripen early, despite being at almost 600 meters in altitude, and the nose is ripe but then the palate is finer-boned. It feels a little earthy. 2,953 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2025.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted with Carlos López de Lacalle, second generation in the winery. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger-volume containers and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. The aim is to obtain fine-boned wines with freshness, and he finds that in the wines from 2024. We tasted the bottled 2023s and unbottled samples of the 2024s, except for the 2024 white, which was already in bottle. 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. La Hoya and El Carretil could be the highlights from the 2023s. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls a textbook vintage. Like last time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, a village where the wines show more fruit, and darker fruit too; and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia, a village with finer-boned and mineral, profound wines. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eAlcohol levels are going down. The 2024s are around 14%, and in 2025, some wines have only 12.8% alcohol, though the majority are between 13% and 13.5%. But that was because of the 2025 vintage, which was a rainy year with lots of mildew and hail on the 11th of July, and for unknown reasons, the grapes stopped in September. But more about that next year...\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451354595496,"sku":"SPN00490172","price":125.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_10118ad0-8728-443d-8f39-d455eab57d2e.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-poza-de-ballesteros-2023","title":"Artadi La Poza de Ballesteros 2023","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94-95 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI found some spicy oak in the unbottled sample of the 2023 La Poza de Ballesteros. They harvested earlier in search of removing the ripeness and gaining in tension; but the aromatics of the 2023s are of ripe fruit, and this is no exception—it's faintly balsamic too. But the palate is finer-boned and has more elegance and freshness and comes through as finer-boned. It has a little lower alcohol, 14.4%. There will be around 4,000 bottles, which they expect to bottle after the 2025 winter, in May or June.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451354955944,"sku":"SPN00490174","price":158.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_8910f1d2-b743-4734-aa3b-80d298e90522.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-san-lazaro-2023","title":"Artadi San Lazaro 2023","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e95-97 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe unbottled 2023 San Lázaro shows a nose of ripe berry fruit—black rather than red—with an earthy touch and a little darker in all senses than the bottled 2022 I tasted next to it. There is a faint earthiness and perhaps iron, meat or blood-like touch here. It has 14.4% alcohol and a fine-boned palate with fine-grained tannins, subdued chalky minerality, the Laguardia elegance and this plot's length. Since 2022, all of the plots include the white grapes that are planted in the vineyard together with the Tempranillo. They expect to fill some 4,000 bottles around May or June 2025.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451355021480,"sku":"SPN00490173","price":172.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_f5a01d10-dceb-433a-828a-43c6c23b491c.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artadi-la-hoya-2023","title":"Artadi La Hoya 2023","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e95 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled version of the 2023 La Hoya feels quite serious and harmonious. It spent its first winter in 500- and 600-liter barrels and the second one in a 4,000-liter oak foudre. The nose is quite subtle and a little shy, with finesse. The top part of the plot is sandy, and the lower part has more silt; the combination gives the wine fruit and structure. It also has a lot of limestone and comes through as very balanced too. It's medium-bodied and really fine-boned. This is now showing much better than anticipated. 5,232 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2025. This and Carretil could be the highlights from the 2023s.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted with Carlos López de Lacalle, second generation in the winery. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger-volume containers and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. The aim is to obtain fine-boned wines with freshness, and he finds that in the wines from 2024. We tasted the bottled 2023s and unbottled samples of the 2024s, except for the 2024 white, which was already in bottle. 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. La Hoya and El Carretil could be the highlights from the 2023s. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls a textbook vintage. Like last time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, a village where the wines show more fruit, and darker fruit too; and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia, a village with finer-boned and mineral, profound wines. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eAlcohol levels are going down. The 2024s are around 14%, and in 2025, some wines have only 12.8% alcohol, though the majority are between 13% and 13.5%. But that was because of the 2025 vintage, which was a rainy year with lots of mildew and hail on the 11th of July, and for unknown reasons, the grapes stopped in September. But more about that next year...\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451355316392,"sku":"SPN00490171","price":125.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_786063b0-58c0-44a2-9a58-07c309442910.png?v=1781764347"},{"product_id":"artadi-valdegines-2023","title":"Artadi Valdegines 2023","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2023 Valdeginés, which last year as a sample showed textbook characteristics of the vintage, with ripe fruit and a finer-boned palate and also a good expression of the Laguardia minerality, delivered what the sample promised. It wears the subtitle Paraje de Valparaiso, which is the zone or lieu-dit of Laguardia where the vines are located. The wine has more ripeness, like the 2023s, and it finished at 14.5% alcohol, reflecting a warmer and drier vintage, but the palate is balanced and has lots of finesse. 10,135 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2025.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted with Carlos López de Lacalle, second generation in the winery. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger-volume containers and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. The aim is to obtain fine-boned wines with freshness, and he finds that in the wines from 2024. We tasted the bottled 2023s and unbottled samples of the 2024s, except for the 2024 white, which was already in bottle. 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. La Hoya and El Carretil could be the highlights from the 2023s. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls a textbook vintage. Like last time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, a village where the wines show more fruit, and darker fruit too; and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia, a village with finer-boned and mineral, profound wines. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eAlcohol levels are going down. The 2024s are around 14%, and in 2025, some wines have only 12.8% alcohol, though the majority are between 13% and 13.5%. But that was because of the 2025 vintage, which was a rainy year with lots of mildew and hail on the 11th of July, and for unknown reasons, the grapes stopped in September. But more about that next year...\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451355381928,"sku":"SPN00490170","price":92.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_f9cb45b0-101b-4014-a9ff-a6e68a76f159.png?v=1781764348"},{"product_id":"artadi-vina-el-pison-2020","title":"Artadi Vina El Pison 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e98 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eOne year ago, I tasted this as a barrel sample when it was still young and undeveloped, juicy and with plenty of baby fat. And now tasted from bottle, the 2020 Viña El Pisón has turned into a serious wine despite 2020 being a more approachable vintage with more fruit, but still has a remarkable tannic structure. It's elegant, austere and subtle, with a very long aftertaste, and the strength here is the mouthfeel. It's both powerful and ethereal, with stunning balance. They finally bottled it after the normal élevage, and the idea is to perhaps bottle it before was abandoned, as they realized what seemed like a more fragile vintage at first also benefitted from the élevage. 6,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2022.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451365671080,"sku":"SPN00490117","price":441.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_2e71c8b3-0239-4acb-8c6b-3d86679d6fdf.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-vina-el-pison-2023","title":"Artadi Vina El Pison 2023","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e98+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe bottled 2023 Viña El Pisón is aromatic and elegant, but the real difference is the depth on the palate. Carlos López de Lacalle told me that he thinks \"the 2023 wines are elegant, fluid, with engaging and fresh ripe fruit, wines that want to feel their origin.\" It pretty much encapsulates what the 2023s are about: ripe fruit and aromatic noses, with super fine palates. It has freshness and superb balance. It's still young and unevolved, but it should develop for a long time in bottle. 4,072 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2025.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted with Carlos López de Lacalle, second generation in the winery. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger-volume containers and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. The aim is to obtain fine-boned wines with freshness, and he finds that in the wines from 2024. We tasted the bottled 2023s and unbottled samples of the 2024s, except for the 2024 white, which was already in bottle. 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. La Hoya and El Carretil could be the highlights from the 2023s. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls a textbook vintage. Like last time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, a village where the wines show more fruit, and darker fruit too; and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia, a village with finer-boned and mineral, profound wines. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eAlcohol levels are going down. The 2024s are around 14%, and in 2025, some wines have only 12.8% alcohol, though the majority are between 13% and 13.5%. But that was because of the 2025 vintage, which was a rainy year with lots of mildew and hail on the 11th of July, and for unknown reasons, the grapes stopped in September. But more about that next year..\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451372060840,"sku":"SPN00490176","price":441.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_0fcb7d0f-144f-465c-b8fa-474f10d5ae0b.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-vinas-de-gain-tinto-2020","title":"Artadi Vinas de Gain Tinto 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e92 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe young red 2020 Viñas de Gaín was produced with Tempranillo grapes from different vineyards in Laguardia and Elvillar at 450 to 700 meters in altitude. It fermented in oak and stainless steel vats followed by malolactic in barrel and an élevage in barrel for eight months. This is a blend from some 20 vineyards at various altitudes, keeping the older ones to produce a wine that has complexity and depth, the expression of Tempranillo in Laguardia and Elvillar. It is approachable and pleasant but with complexity and depth. It has ripeness and richness without excess. 70,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2022.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451416920232,"sku":"SPN00490163","price":69.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_afd2d412-60ca-4570-af46-82b72ae576e1.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-vinas-de-gain-tinto-2020-1-5l","title":"Artadi Vinas de Gain Tinto 2020 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e92 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe young red 2020 Viñas de Gaín was produced with Tempranillo grapes from different vineyards in Laguardia and Elvillar at 450 to 700 meters in altitude. It fermented in oak and stainless steel vats followed by malolactic in barrel and an élevage in barrel for eight months. This is a blend from some 20 vineyards at various altitudes, keeping the older ones to produce a wine that has complexity and depth, the expression of Tempranillo in Laguardia and Elvillar. It is approachable and pleasant but with complexity and depth. It has ripeness and richness without excess. 70,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2022.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eI tasted the 2020s and 2021s from Artadi. They have been working to understand their soils in the valley, where they have quite a lot of sand in the vineyards.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451437957288,"sku":"SPN00490164","price":140.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_1a98c547-8832-41ce-8837-a31427f8c9e2.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-vinas-de-gain-tinto-2021-1-5l","title":"Artadi Vinas de Gain Tinto 2021 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe entry-level red 2021 Viñas de Gaín is the new era for this wine, as they are in the process of increasing the quality and reducing volumes. Vineyards like Villalba, San Martín, Carralaguardia, Santa Cecilia or La Laguna, which were before bottled separately and sold to collectors directly at the winery, are now contributing to this blend, which has the ambition; and they have stopped using other vineyards, the lower ones, closer to the Ebro River, where there's more ripeness, that they sell in bulk, and in the future they might sell the grapes. The wine is ripe but elegant, which is, I think, a good definition of the Artadi style. This year feels very complete; they have gained in complexity, finesse and character. Starting in 2021, they also add 2% to 4% white Viura to all the reds. 65,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2022.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eI tasted the bottled 2021s from Artadi and the 2022s from barrel. 2021 was a cooler year, in the style of 2018; and 2022 saw an extremely warm summer, but the results are much better than expected. Since 2021, they have reduced the single-vineyard bottlings of very small plots that were bottled for collectors (sold directly at the winery) and are using those grapes to improve the Viñas de Gaín, with the idea to increase the quality to reach what was before the Pagos Viejos and even discarding some of the vineyards that in the past were part of Viñas de Gaín, reducing volumes too.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2021s are much better than what I previewed last year. It's a fresh vintage that follows the path of 2010, with fine but ripe tannins and lighter, elegant and fine-boned wines, because, despite being a warm year, the plants didn't get stressed and the ripening was very good without very high peaks; the wines are ripe and fresh. They are in the process of moving the élevage to larger barrels, 500- and 600-liter ones starting in 2021, with the idea to replace maybe 15% of them and move all the wines to 600-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2022 was the warmest year in recent times, a year with stress, but the result is much better than expected, with lower alcohol, less structure and lower pH. Carlos López de Lacalle reckons the plants got blocked and there was no ripening, or if anything, there was a phenological stop that generated less tannins and sugar. For them, it is a unique year that takes them back to the 1990s, with less alcohol, less structure and more ethereal wines! All the 2022s I tasted were already in stainless steel to be bottled a little earlier, around March\/April. They are changing, and the end of the élevage is going to be in foudre, so 600-liter barrels until malolactic is over in the spring and then foudre (now in stainless steel) for almost one year. In 2022, El Pisón and La Hoya already saw that treatment, and it was introduced to the other wines starting in 2023, slowly, as they have to buy new foudres of their size, one foudre for each of the single-vineyard wines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThey have done soil studies and found great geological diversity that has helped them to better understand their terroir. The vinification was similar for all wines, fermentation in open stainless steel tanks after a cold maceration of 24 to 48 hours and 10 to 12 days with two daily treadings and a short pump-over followed by malolactic in barrel and aging in demi-muid for nine months. Alcohol levers are around 14.5%, which defined the style of the wines, ripe without excess with balance and good freshness.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451457355944,"sku":"SPN00490165","price":140.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_8a0ec181-6d13-435c-a6ad-ecd6933c8f16.png?v=1781764349"},{"product_id":"artadi-vinas-de-gain-tinto-2022","title":"Artadi Vinas de Gain Tinto 2022","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe entry-level red 2022 Viñas de Gaín Tinto comes from a dry and very warm year when they started picking on September 15. As in previous years, it contains a small percentage of white grapes, 2% to 4% Viura. It fermented in stainless steel and matured in 225-, 500- and 600-liter barrels for one winter (about 10 months) and a further year in stainless steel and oak foudre. Tasted next to the 2023, this looks paler and more delicate. It is medium-bodied, fine-grained and tasty. 45,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2023. Starting this year, the plots that used to be bottled separately as a collector's range now go to Viñas de Gaín, which wants to be the new Pagos Viejos.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451469775016,"sku":"SPN00490179","price":69.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_96f3abdb-17cf-446b-8e9d-245d5df5304c.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artadi-vinas-de-gain-tinto-2022-1-5l","title":"Artadi Vinas de Gain Tinto 2022 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e93 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe entry-level red 2022 Viñas de Gaín Tinto comes from a dry and very warm year when they started picking on September 15. As in previous years, it contains a small percentage of white grapes, 2% to 4% Viura. It fermented in stainless steel and matured in 225-, 500- and 600-liter barrels for one winter (about 10 months) and a further year in stainless steel and oak foudre. Tasted next to the 2023, this looks paler and more delicate. It is medium-bodied, fine-grained and tasty. 45,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2023. Starting this year, the plots that used to be bottled separately as a collector's range now go to Viñas de Gaín, which wants to be the new Pagos Viejos.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eArtadi still sells their wines without the Rioja appellation of origin, but they are still located in the heart of Rioja. So, their wines appear in this article like always, because I include wines from the region whether or not they carry the appellation of origin on their labels. They keep working their 56 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Laguardia and El Villar to produce between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles. Their cellar has changed when it comes to the containers where they age their wines, as they no longer have any 225-liter barrels and instead have 120 600-liter demi-muids, 30 500-liter demi-muids and four oak vats ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 liters. Everything has been certified organic since 2016, even though they started working organically in 2007.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis time, we tasted by village: La Hoya, Quintanilla and La Poza de Ballesteros are in Elvillar, and Valdeginés, San Lázaro, El Carretil and El Pisón are in Laguardia. The wines from Laguardia tend to have more elegance, while Elvillar has more ripeness. I tasted the bottled 2022s and unbottled samples of the 2023s. Both years were warm and dry. The key difference in 2023 was the rain in early September, which changed the character of the year despite the 254 liters in total rainfall, half of the annual average, so yields were lower; but the wines, from grapes harvested until mid-October, are fresher, elegant and more fluid, yet there's a higher sense of ripeness and darker color (and aromas) in the 2023s. 2022 has turned out much better than expected. The wines have red fruit, low-ish pH and more delicacy than you'd think because of the extreme warm and dry year. Carlos has started to change the style of the wines in 2023 and 2024, harvesting earlier, using larger volumes and giving the wines a longer élevage for the micro-oxygenation part but not for the aromas or flavors. But 2023 was warm, and 2024 was cooler and with a lot of rain in September. He likes 2024 very much, which he calls textbook. I look forward to tasting them next year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55451470332072,"sku":"SPN00490180","price":140.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_80d48e31-b4e5-4784-82c4-70cf33471198.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artazu-santa-cruz-de-artazu-2020","title":"Artazu Santa Cruz de Artazu 2020","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe red 2020 Santa Cruz de Artazu is a Garnacha from ancient small plots on the slopes of Artazu, mostly around the Santa Cruz Hermit. It was produced very much in the Artadi way for reds, with fermentation in open vat and nine months in barrel, 500-liter ones here. It has 14.65% alcohol and very good freshness and acidity, which translate into a balanced and tasty varietal red. It's clean, aromatic, open and expressive, with lots of fruit. The palate is juicy and round, with abundant, fine-grained tannins. 4,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2022.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eArtazu is the Navarra project from the Artadi family from Rioja. I tasted their range as part of the Artadi group portfolio at the beginning of the year, and I'm including those notes here again for context and completeness of this regional article. As with the wines from Rioja, all the Navarra wines are now certified organic. In my discussion with Carlos López de la Calle soon after the 2022 harvest, he mentioned that in 2022 there were a lot of wildfires that affected the aromatics of the 2022 wines. 2019 was a very good vintage for them.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55452900065448,"sku":"SPN00490166","price":85.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_8c80bea6-cf2c-4668-9c52-9556f74314bc.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artazu-santa-cruz-de-artazu-2023","title":"Artazu Santa Cruz de Artazu 2023","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e95 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe village red from Artazu is the 2023 Santa Cruz de Artazu was produced with grapes from small plots of old head-pruned and dry-farmed vines on silt and limestone soils that provide finesse. It has notes of red fruit and flowers, aromatic herbs and perfectly integrated oak after it matured in well-seasoned 600-liter barrels for eight months. It's harmonious, elegant and fine-boned, with elegant tannins and great balance. It's approachable now because of its harmonious profile but has the stuffing and balance between its components to age nicely in bottle. 6,909 bottles and 51 magnums were filled in December 2024.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eArtazu is the project in Navarra from Artadi in Rioja, located in the village of Artazu in Navarra, where they have 27 hectares of old-vine Garnacha, which is complemented with a further 13 hectares in San Martín de Unx, all certified organic. They produce 45,000 bottles per year.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55452910551208,"sku":"SPN00490182","price":85.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_350f1e13-d28d-4cc1-996f-9c060170167f.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artazu-pasos-de-san-martin-2019","title":"Artazu Pasos de San Martin 2019","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2019 Pasos de San Martín was produced with Garnacha from the cooler zone of San Martín de Unx in Navarra where they have 11 hectares of 40-year-old vines on a southeast exposure where the soils are rich in limestone and silt. It's ripe, reflecting the warm and dry year, hitting the scale at 14.7% alcohol but keeping a low-ish pH of 3.42. It's an aromatic and expressive Garnacha with elegance, floral notes and hints of ripe fruit. It's fine-boned and has elegant tannins that make it easy to drink. It was filled into 12,000 bottles after nine months in 500-liter barrels.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eArtazu is the Navarra project from the Artadi family from Rioja. I tasted their range as part of the Artadi group portfolio at the beginning of the year, and I'm including those notes here again for context and completeness of this regional article. As with the wines from Rioja, all the Navarra wines are now certified organic. In my discussion with Carlos López de la Calle soon after the 2022 harvest, he mentioned that in 2022 there were a lot of wildfires that affected the aromatics of the 2022 wines. 2019 was a very good vintage for them.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55453053485224,"sku":"SPN00490142","price":63.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_c2073bcf-a50c-4061-bd2b-0a3457718fa8.png?v=1781764350"},{"product_id":"artazu-pasos-de-san-martin-2023-1-5l","title":"Artazu Pasos de San Martin 2023 (1.5L)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e93+ Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe 2023 Pasos de San Martín, produced with grapes from the village of San Martín de Unx shows the more Mediterranean face of Navarra, with notes of berries, flowers and aromatic herbs, a juicy palate and good ripeness (14.5% alcohol) and balance. There is purity, no trace of oak—it matured in 600-liter casks for 12 months—and a fine, powdery texture with fine, chalky tannins. It has purity, precision and elegance. 11,771 bottles and 132 magnums produced. It was bottled in December 2024.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eArtazu is the project in Navarra from Artadi in Rioja, located in the village of Artazu in Navarra, where they have 27 hectares of old-vine Garnacha, which is complemented with a further 13 hectares in San Martín de Unx, all certified organic. They produce 45,000 bottles per year.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55453053911208,"sku":"SPN00490181","price":129.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_5e983819-c076-44c1-85fe-783fc312c20a.png?v=1781764351"},{"product_id":"artazu-santa-cruz-de-artazu-blanco-2021","title":"Artazu Santa Cruz de Artazu Blanco 2021","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e94 Points | The Wine Advocate, Luis Gutiérrez\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe village white 2021 Santa Cruz de Artazu Blanco was produced with Garnacha Blanca, a variety that was almost lost. They have two certified organic vineyards. The wine fermented 50\/50 in stainless steel and 500-liter French oak barrels, and it had a slow aging of two years and seven months with lees. It has a bright yellow color and an expressive, elegant and nuanced nose of white fruit, flowers, yeasts and nuts, subtle and elegant, with a sense of harmony and delicacy. It has 13% alcohol and a pH of 3.35, denoting medium ripeness and very good freshness, and it's supple, with a long, clean, dry, chalky and precise finish. 3,607 bottles and 20 magnums were filled in May 2024. This is drinking well now but should evolve nicely in bottle.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003eThis Bodegas Artadi project is in the village of Artazu in Navarra, where they have 27 hectares of old-vine Garnacha, which is complemented with a further 13 hectares in San Martín de Unx, all certified organic. They produce 45,000 bottles per year.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wine Clique","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55453492543656,"sku":"SPN00490183","price":63.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/files\/BC_Upload_2f47efa0-f9a5-4b9d-8bb4-27566c865ab1.png?v=1781764351"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/3316\/6248\/collections\/Spain_copy_3c6d3118-9a68-41bd-8565-bd87beea0792.png?v=1782787984","url":"https:\/\/www.wine-clique.com\/collections\/spain.oembed?page=2","provider":"Wine Clique","version":"1.0","type":"link"}