This Week's Tasting
Selected Spanish Wines for Fall
September 10, 2025
A wonderful mix of reds and one white. (click link in heading above to read more)
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This Week Wednesday, September 10, 2025 Selected Spanish Wines for Fall Mostly Rioja, Mostly Tempranillo In-store, 5 - 6:30pm
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White
2023 Alegre Valgañon Rioja Blanca
Whether you are trying a White Rioja for the first time or haven’t had one in a long time, we have great Rioja Blanca for you to enjoy. The wine is produced by a husband (Oscar Alegre) and wife (Eva Valgañon) team who are big believers in wines of balance. Captivating fruit and floral aromatics, lovely round texture, and well-integrated barrel notes show their skills as winemakers crafting this beautiful wine.
Aroma: White nectarines, pineapple, mandarin orange peel, spiced herbal tea, spring flowers, and citrus blossoms. Mouth: Full bodied, balanced fruit, lovely acidity, underlying minerality with a long seamless finish. Very Good Plus $26.99, Case $22.99
Red
2021 Rosaria Vera Rioja Tempranillo Crianza
Hand-picked Tempranillo grape bunches, from small vineyard plots planted on limestone-clay soils, stainless steel. With carbonic maceration to emphasize the fruit, the wine was aged for a year in French oak.
Color: medium dark; Aroma: heady, ripe and rich, alluringly bright and intense; Mouth: clean, light, firm, red fruit, fine acid, soft tannins, forward, zesty, and inviting; Very Good $18.99; Case, $15.99
2023 Bodegas y Vinedos Artuke ‘Pies Negros’ Rioja
This Rioja is ready for enjoyment from the first pour to the last. Everything about this wine is balanced: fruit, tannins, spice, structure, you name it. Brothers Arturo and Kike use a gentle but firm hand without overdoing things in the winery. With the weather cooling off, enjoy this with your favorite stew or Sunday roast beef dinner.
Aroma: Ripe cherries, blackberry, anise, fennel, baking spices, and a hint of tobacco. Mouth: Medium body, fine tannins, rich berry fruit, good acidity, supple texture, and a long, polished finish. Very Good Plus $24.99, Case $21.49
2020 Lanzaga Corriente Rioja
Telmo Rodriguez of the well-known Remelluri estate started a new project in the highlands of Rioja Alavesa called Bodega Lanzaga. He has very select old vineyards in the Lanciego zone. Telmo considers his 2020 Corriente Rioja"village" wine, a field blend of mostly Tempranillo with some Garnacha, Graciano, and other native varieties.
Bodega Lanzaga wines are organic with spontaneous fermentation, no new oak, and are neither fined nor filtered. They are pure expressions of the hills where they grow. It's Rioja's future, rooted in ancient tradition.
- Deep ruby. Dense and polished. Complex aromas and flavors of dark berries, plums, herbs, and spices. Walnuts are featured in the finish, providing a creamy texture. Very Good - Excellent 22.99/bottle, Case: 19.99
2022 Miguel Marino Rioja Crianza Vinas Jovenes
Miguel Merino focuses on low-production, high-quality wines. In the 1990s, he established his winery in Briones, in the heart of Rioja Alta. He found old vineyards, some as old as 100 years, planted on steep slopes, mostly made of clay and limestone. The vineyards are mostly oriented north and northeast to benefit from cooler, more humid conditions and later ripening. Each plot is managed individually by hand. The winemaking here is excellent in a very modern style.
Color: very dark black; Aroma: heady with some secondary notes rich, intense, full, light oak, very rich blackberry; Mouth: clean, very rounded fleshy, full, fine, tight acid, very ripe black fruit, very intense, fine light tannins; Very Good - Excellent $32; Case, $26.99
2018 Abadia Retuerta Sardon del Duero Seleccion Especial
Abadia Retuerta, an abbey and monastery near the Duero River in north-central Spain, has been known for its wine since 1188. It has been private since 1835. Novartis Pharma purchased the moribund Abadia Retuerta in 1988 and decided to renovate the property completely while preserving its historic integrity. They hired Pascal Delbeck, the director of Bordeaux’s prestigious Ch. Ausone, as a consultant. He restored and replanted vines and built a new gravity-fed winery.
Seleccion Especial, a blend of mostly Tempranillo grapes from 54 separate vineyards in Sardon del Duero, is the winery’s flagship wine and one of the stars of the duerD
It’si full-bodied and complex, reflecting the estate’s guiding idea that each incarnation of this wine should be a faithful reflection of the vintage, the terroir, and the personality of the estate.
Deep ruby red. Full-bodied blackberry, plum, cassis, and balsamic flavors. Black pepper and clove appear in a fresh, old vine creamy texture. Long balanced finish with bold, pleasant tannins. Excellent $49, case $42, limited quantity
Rioja and Friends Case, Special, two each of the wines $359 Sale - $299
Mix any twelve of these wines at their case prices
Order by phone at 617.367.8605, or reserve here: order@federalwine.com
Please pass this on to any friends who are wine enthusiasts!
- Len Rothenberg
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downtown on orders more than $75;
in Greater Boston on orders more than $199
