Cigales – tasting notes

Just about to be released. 14 months in oak, 70% French, 30% American, old and a little new. Real integrity on the nose and then very firm structure and bone dry but the fruit certainly stands up to the oak. Fresh and dense. Bottled in 2008. 14%

Very dark crimson and high toned. Firm and rich and sleek. Solid. Very dry end. Correct and fiery and reminds me of Saperavi because it has so much acidity and structure. Obviously noble. Velvety texture and not too much acidity. Sufficiently fresh fruit.

They picked around 8 Oct in 2009. Very dark crimson. Smells very intense – reminds me of Russia! (Almost brown sugar it's so intense.) Sweeter than most – or at least lower in acid. Very good for the US market, I would have thought. Flattering and opulent. Rather dry end. Quite Pomerolly.

16 months in American and French oak. Chosen as the best wine of Castilla y León by sommeliers. Extremely deep crimson. Much more savoury than the 2006 Crianza. A selection of the best barrels, and an extra four to five months. Very complete and lush and with deep undertow of ripe tannins. 100-year-old vines on the label. Hint of liquorice and definite herbs. Really quite superior but a bit hot. 10,000 bottles approximately. 14.9%

Doesn't say Frutos Villar on the label because it's the owner of three bodegas in different regions, Ribera, Toro, Rueda and Cigales. Mid crimson. Tobacco nose and then rather tight and taut. A little eviscerated.

They make perhaps more than any other producer here, though Museum's cellar is bigger. Mid crimson. 0.5 million kg of grapes. Some of the high-acid character but not really enough flavour.

He comes with his first vintage of red and his English-speaking nephew. It's a typical family bodega with a long history of pink wine. Why red? It was a necessity. The oenologist Cesar Munoz said 'you really should take advantage of the red grapes here'. Very dark crimson. Very harmonious and complex and proper wine. Very rich and proper and serious. Long. Fresh as well as rich. Well done!

He owns 42 ha and 17 are of 60-100 years minimum. He buys in sometimes. The oak seems a lot more obvious – very modern it seems. Still very tight. Taken out of barrel earlier than the 2000. Serious stuff with a lovely texture but still very young.

Mid crimson, not the most intense colour. Rather rustic nose. Very sweet and in-your-face. Tastes a bit overripe and porty, with a rusty-nails end.

First vintage was 1998. Very dark. Quite a volatile nose. Blast from the past! Heavy and sweet with possibly a little brett. Still for sale, apparently 'we have many bottles'. Hmm. Can rather understand why.

Means 'The League'. Started in 1997 with vineyards that are now 30 years old. Bought for a deaf brother.  80 ha. They don't buy in. 85% Tempranillo and a little Cabernet Sauvignon and Garnacha. Apparently they can use Cabernet Sauvignon in a blend... Telmo Rodriguez makes his Cigales in their cellar – rather cosmopolitan bloke. Vina 105 is Telmo's. Rather awkward and with quite high acidity. A little awkward on the finish. Family company.

Very deep. Full and a little jagged and very sweet and simple. Cinnamon notes. Again a bit hollow. Philip Schwander imports in to Switzerland.

Sweet and rich and round. Pretty heavy and voluptuous. Quite a bit of alcohol, American style. Cocoa.

Family-selected grapes. Scented and fresh and really lively. More energy than their other wines. Really zesty though lighter than some of the old-vine cuvées.

Very fruity and relatively simple on the nose, but actually there is a LOT of flavour here! Long and fresh and clean with a hint of minerality. Lots of frankness and energy here. GV

Belongs to the Matarromera group, their third winery. Looks like VAL de los Frailes on the label. They saw the potential. 1998 start. Saw that there was real potential for reds not just rosés here. They export to 51 countries but not much to the UK. Working with OMNI wines in the US. Very sweet, more 2003 and a little bit heavier than the more usual energetic fresh style of the DO.

14 months in American and French oak. 90-year-old vines. Very dark indeed. Sweet and exotic nose. Quite a cocktail. Very thick and sweet and rather Rollandian. Thick velvety. Very opulent, almost an overlay of oak and winemaking rather than the fruit and vineyard. Flattering.

Pre-phylloxera vines, 125 years old. Very noble and intense and deep-flavoured with the fruit defnitely triumphing over any winemaking here. Lovely expressive combination of altitude and minerality. Spicy and complete.

55% limestone and the most recent DO study of the terroirs says that theirs is very like Pomerol. Vines are 12 to 24 years old. Rather French in aroma, neat and well behaved. Less wild than some. American and French oak. They started with 100% French oak but the wines needed too much time before they were dirnkable. 1999 was their first vintage.

Half of the vines are 60- to 100-years-old, grown on pebbles (cascajo). Dark crimson. Very neat again. Rather low-key nose. Well behaved and very middle of the road. No obvious oak and lots of acidity. Gentler than Ribera. The opposite of rustic – drawing-room stuff. Not unlike bordeaux!

Just 11,000 bottles. Single vineyard. A partnership between Ana Martín (flying winemaker) and Maria Pinacho, who makes wine in Ribera del Duero. Made in Pinacho's father's winery. The vines were planted in 1945. They think their clone is closer to Toro's than Ribera's. The climate is very similar to Toro, and it's a sloping vineyard. Their first vintage was in 1998 and it's still drinking well, apparently, although it loses the structure. 'We were the first to make a special red in Cigales. It was almost all clarete and rose before using very old American oak barrels. Ours was the first modern Cigales wine.' First and second year American and French barrels. Very deep crimson. Very fine and luscious and juicy with great velvety texture and very fine. Spicier and herbier rather than red fruits. Definitely spicy. Dry finish. 14%

Started in 2000, a local family. Jazzy label. 15 ha vines, about 40 years old. Some even 60 years old. Six months in barrel. Polite wine that's sort of quite nice but not attention grabbing. Difficult to rate as I think I would welcome this in a restaurant but it is not making the most of the potential. A bit sweet and drying at the end.

Very dark crimson. He says the 2005 is rounder. This is certainly a bit tough. Doesn't taste as though it were made with love, but it's adequate especially if you are forgiving of tough tannins.

Dark crimson. Smells as though picked a little overripe? Then pretty tight and tough on the end. Chewy. 80% French oak, 80% new. I'm sure the fruit is great but the balance doesn't seem quite right yet.