Tasting Notes
Wine Advocate 100 Pts - Luis Gutiérrez Feb 23 – Drink 2023-40 The youth, freshness, balance and harmony of the 2016 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva is gobsmacking. The wine is a little shy, insinuating, reticent and a little closed, and it feels younger than it is. The texture is silky, and it's medium-bodied, with moderate ripeness, 14% alcohol and very good freshness denoted by a pH of 3.41. It has fine tannins that make it nicely textured and fine-boned, with subtle minerality. This should be veeeeeery long lived, as it has the stuffing, all the ingredients and the balance between them to make old bones. Amazing juice. Wine Advocate 100 Pts - Luis Gutiérrez Feb 23 – Drink 2023-40
It comes from a collection of small plots of some of the oldest vines in the village of La Aguilera in the lieu-dit, or "paraje," that names the wine, in a small valley surrounded by pine, holm and juniper trees, where there is a cold draft of air and the temperature is lower than in the rest of the village. The soils are sandy and intermixed with clay on a marl mother rock. The plants are mostly Tempranillo, but as they are very old vines, there's always a field blend of other varieties—Albillo Mayor, Monastrell, Garnacha, Bobal and Cariñena—all fermented together with full clusters that were foot trodden in concrete vats and indigenous yeasts. Malolactic was in barrel and lasted for 11 months, while the élevage was extended to a total of 55 months (almost five years!). After all this time in barrels, the wine is not oaky at all; it's floral and perfumed, elegant, nuanced and layered. Luis Gutiérrez.
Dominio Del Aguila is a family winery based in La Aguilera, a small village in Ribera del Duero, and run by a couple formed by Jorge Monzón and Isabel Rodero, vigneron and architect respectively. Since 2010 we have joined our efforts to make a dream come true…
The winery is within the “Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Ribera del Duero” and within the “Consejo Ecologico de Castilla y León”, the institution that regulates organic wines.
The domain's greatest asset is the vineyard. we count with 30 hectares of very old vines, mostly in organic farming, apart from 5 additional hectares relatively young (under 50 years). We are grapes suppliers of some of the main wineries in the region since more than 10 vintages.
Our passion is the vineyard! Jorge comes from a family of many generations of vignerons. His studies were based in ‘Soil, viticulture and oenology’ at the Universities of Bordeaux and Burgundy. He worked with prestigious wineries such as Domaine De La Romanée-Conti for more than two years. He has also worked in Spain in the Vega Sicilia Group for a year and as technical director of Bodegas Arzuaga-Navarro for nine years. Since 2013 he works full time in Dominio del Águila.
Through all those years learning and gaining experience, we were also devoted to the recovering of family vineyards, till we have managed to get together as owners a very high quality vine patrimony, some real Grand Crus… where the ‘tempranillo’ is the true protagonist, living in a very friendly way with other varieties such as ‘blanca del país’, ‘bobal’, ‘garnacha’, ‘albillo’, ‘tempranillo gris’, etc.
Moreover, we have rehabilitated a traditional winery dated from the XVII century and six cellars/underground galleries dated from the XV century, which have been physically linked and where we can find now concrete tanks and oak barrels with the wine.
Starting with the viticulture and finishing with the wine making, in Dominio del Águila we really try hard to do everything in an artisanal way, being very respectful with nature and making a symbiosis of tradition and technical knowledge.
From the use of herb-infused juices to treat the vines (like valerian or mielenrama), to the non-flitration and non-fining the wines.
With these premises, the Dominio del Águila’s final goal is to make pure and fine wines. Organic wines which are able to age for a long long time, but, however, that can be enjoyed at any time.
All of them are elaborated with stemed grapes and trodden with the feet in the artisanal way. The malolactic fermentation takes place in oak barrels of the highest quality, as well as the aging in the underground galleries. Currently there are about 250 oak barrels.
The winery’s main brand is ‘Dominio Del Aguila’. It is a ‘vino reserva’ with more than 30 months aging in French oak barrels. Also we elaborate a claret and a red wine aged about 15 months, called ‘Picaro del Aguila’. These wines are the basis of our work, but we also have a range of terroirs with a great personality, such as ‘Canta la Perdiz’, a ‘gran reserva’ that age more than 40 months in oak barrels. - Winery Note
| Product Type | Wine Red Tempranillo |
| Volume | 750ml |
| Country | Spain |
| Region | Ribera del Duero |
| Sub Region | Ribera del Duero |
| Winemaking Practices | Minimal Intervention |
| Vineyard Practices | Minimal Intervention |