Wine due September 2025
"There's a little more color in the new wine, the 2023 Quiñón de Valdelareina, than in the 2023 Quiñón de Valmira that I tasted next to it. If Valmira is quite shallow (20 centimeters or less!), the Valdelareina, which is higher in altitude in the zone of Las Mulgas (at the limit to Navarra at 650 meters), has a soil more like La Montesa, red and deeper that delivers riper grapes and voluptuous wines with more volume and weight. The vines are 90 years old. They used to buy the grapes (the zone is quite far away from the Alfaro village), but they have bought three small plots. The feeling is also of slightly higher ripeness and darker fruit, a little earthier and with a little more rusticity. The tannins are fine but do not quite reach those of its older sibling, with the clout and depth from the old vines. It was just bottled in January 2025." 96pts Luis Gutiérrez The Wine Advocate
This new addition to the Palacios Rioja Oriental stable comes from a small 1.5 hectare plot of 90-year-old, south-east facing vines at 600m on the Monte Yerga. The soils here are similar to those of Quiñón de Valmira, just deeper and without Valmira’s identifying calcareous layer near the top.
The nose of Valdelareina (meaning ‘Valley of the Queen’) absolutely sings of sweet Garnacha, which makes up 90% of the blend (the remaining 10% being a field blend of other red grapes). It is so pure, brimming with aromas of ripe, juicy strawberries.
The palate is oh-so-lovely, gentle yet with a wonderful tension framing refreshing flavours of more, beautiful, sweet, fragrant strawberries, enhanced by a cherry blossom bouquet. It is so pretty! The tannins are impeccably precise, gliding across the palate and leaving just a fine dusting on the long, savoury-edged finish. Valdelareina is a charming, gorgeous wine with a strawberry-savoury intensity yet with that fabulous purity that only a few can achieve with this variety. Drink 2025 to 2040, depending on how you like your Garnacha.
Catriona Felstead MW
