Pozo Alto 2019 Olivier Riviere

Professional reviews

Robert Parker (96)

The red 2019 Pozo Alto was produced with the grapes from an old plot in the village of Leza. The blend is 75% Graciano, 20% Tempranillo and 5% Garnacha with 14.3% alcohol and 5.6 grams of acidity. The destemmed grapes fermented with a three-week maceration, and the wine matured in 500-liter oak barrels for 12 months, followed by a further 26 months in 1,000-liter oak foudre. This is ripe, powerful and round, aromatic and expressive, in a much more powerful year (because of the character of the year), because the vinification and élevage were the same. The very high percentage of Graciano is very noticeable, making the wine very spicy, with lots of notes of freshly cracked black peppercorn. There's more natural concentration of the fruit, low yields, and Rivière was careful with the extraction. It has abundant but fine-grained tannins, plenty of energy and good balance. This should develop nicely in bottle. It's the most powerful vintage and the most powerful wine in the portfolio in 2019. Wait a bit. 1,300 bottles were filled in February 2022. He got rid of this vineyard (and sold Losares and Eusebio to Pago Carraovejas from Ribera del Duero), so 2020 will be the last vintage of this wine.

BOW (8.75)