"The just-bottled 2023 Quiñón de Valmira was hitting it on all cylinders the morning I tasted it. It was exuberant, aromatic, floral, extroverted and really singing, with incredible harmony for a wine that had been bottled only a couple of weeks before I tried it. It had a shorter maceration, a mere 13 days (compared with the from 45 from the 2022), and also a shorter élevage, 13 months. 2023 continued the dry and warm tendency of 2022 that made them work more and differently in the vineyards to keep the humidity in the soil and have more vegetation, which seems to help the sticks hold up the vines. The wine is a revelation, sensual and juicy, with notes of tangerine and wild strawberry. They did a very careful vinification and élevage to avoid any fissures in the wine. It has a kind of stony reductiveness that I loved, making it serious and mineral. It's really fine-boned and elegant like never before, with complexity, mixing floral notions with aromatic herbs and exotic spices, somewhat taking me to the character of some reds from Jura, ethereal but vibrant and full of energy and power. It has a moderate 13.5% alcohol, balanced by a pH of 3.59 and 5.4 grams of acidity. Álvaro told me this 2023 does not resemble any other vintage; 2024 feels a little like 2021, but 2022 and 2023 are really unique—2023 was saved by the rain from the 10th to the 17th of September; they picked the grapes the 22nd, and the ripening was thorough and achieved a longer cycle. Volumes were lower, though, only 3,062 bottles. It was bottled in January 2025." 100pts Luis Gutierrez The Wine Advocate
Valmira immediately shines out of the glass with its vibrant, red cherry-purple colour. The aromas are like inhaling spring, infused by a fragrance of cherry blossom and hyacinth, whilst walking through a wildflower meadow, crushing the wild herbs underfoot. Small, sweet red cherries lie behind, juicy and fine, and kept firmly in check by a river-pebble core. I could breathe in the nose of this wine all day; it is unique, astonishing, scented, fragrant, vibrating with energy, and utterly out of this world.
An astonishing, ultra-pure minerality cuts through all this perfume on the palate with the precision of a diamond blade splitting a rock of basalt in half. The pin-point tannins are like such fine powder; yet they remain initially present at this stage, needing more time. But it is the weightlessness of Valmira that takes your breath away. It inspires thoughts of a riverbed, the current rushing around a cherry tree island, with such a purity that it is difficult to describe. It is as fresh and invigorating as a glass of water from a cold mountain stream. The finish tightens slightly in its youth and then the fine, ultra-focused tannins just vanish. This an incredible, ethereal, other-worldly wine. Delicacy and power juxtaposed, 2023 Valmira is spine-tinglingly sensational. Drink 2028 to 2044.
Catriona Felstead MW
