Termanthia 2016

Dark ruby to the eye, this wine offers a bouquet of Mission fig and chocolate-covered caramel. Made with Tinta de Toro (Tempranillo) from vines with more than 100 years of age, its lush tannins and a sense of earthiness are the first things one notices. Flavors of dark chocolate, cassis, cherry cola and black truffle are infused with a touch of acidity that livens the palate. It's beautiful right now, but this is one to lay down and visit in a few more years. Drink 2026–2036.

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. - Luis Gutiérrez. 

This is a powerful and cooly tannic old-vine red from Toro. It’s full-bodied and focused with lots of density, yet it remains polished and very long. Moss and wet earth. Rather endless. You can taste the earth of Toro. All the vines are 120 years old, some even 200 years old. Drinkable now, but better in 2028.