Wine Advisor
Numanthia, Termanthia 2016
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez
The 2016 Termanthia comes from a rainier year that resulted in a later harvest of ripe grapes that delivered a powerful wine with 15% alcohol and soft acidity. It fermented in oak and stainless steel vats with selected yeasts and matured in French oak barrels, 80% of them new, for 22 months. This shows the change in style, and it has better freshness and more acidity than the 2015 I tasted next to it: the vintage was different, and the work in the winery also changed in the direction to have less extraction and less oak, showing more transparently the power of the old ungrafted vines. 9,800 bottles were filled in June 2018.
Reviewed by: Joaquín Hidalgo
The 2016 Termanthia, sourced from XIX-century vineyard plots, spent 22 months in new French oak barrels, 90% of which were new. This deep garnet red offers enticing dried flower, blackberry, balsamic, wild herb and grapefruit aromas, complemented by a cedar backdrop. Dry and rich, the palate reveals a light corset-like tannin structure that provides balance and complexity. This is a nuanced Toro wine with a long-lasting finish.
About the Producer
Bodega Numanthia is an estate in the Toro region of northwest Spain, making three high-end red wines wines solely from the Tinta de Toro grape (aka Tempranillo). It is credited with playing a key role bringing the region into the international spotlight. The vines are distributed across numerous small plots on dry soils on either side of the Duero around the town of Toro. Bodega Numanthia estate vineyards cover 83 hectares (205 acres), although the winery sources from a total of 200 hectares (490 acres) across the region. The climate is continental with hot, dry days and cool nights. Most of the vines are at least 50 years old, with several parcels even older again, on ungrafted rootstocks. Numanthia's top wine, Termanthia, is regularly made from a single five-hectare (11-acre) parcel of 120-year-old vines. The grapes are crushed by foot, fermented in oak vats and the wine is aged in what is sometimes refered to as 200 percent new French oak (after an initial period in new oak, the wine is racked into another, unused new oak barrel). Numanthia's standard wine has 18 months aging in French oak barriques while Termes, the entry-level label, is made from younger vines (generally still over 30 years old) and aged in mainly seasoned and some new French oak. The estate was founded in 1998 by the Eguren family and US-based Spanish wine importer Jorge Ordoñez when there were only seven estates in the region. It has been owned by LVMH since 2008. Through its wine group, Sierra Cantabria, the Eguren family later established the Toro-based Teso la Monja range.
