San Roman, Toro, Spain

圣罗曼红葡萄酒

点击次数：30716

The 2020 San Román had a slightly shorter élevage than the 2019 I tasted next to it. These are wines of very good regularity, showing a ripe and generously oaked profile, ripe, lush and powerful, perhaps a tad lighter and fresher in 2020. 115,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2022.

This time I also tasted two vintages of their flagship and eponymous wine, starting with the 2019 San Román, from a warm and dry vintage that resulted in an early harvest that started the 6th of September in San Román de Hornija. It comes from a selection of over 40-year-old ungrafted and head-pruned vines on stony soils with clay and limestone in different villages of the appellation. It fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in new and used 225- and 500-liter French and American oak barrels for 24 months. The wine feels quite marked by the élevage in oak, and the 14.5% alcohol seems to have extracted quite a lot of aromas and tannins from the barrels. It's warm and heady, ripe and voluptuous, with abundant but fine tannins and mellow acidity. 112,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2020.

The 2018 San Román was produced with Tinta de Toro grapes from a cool and wet year that delivered a healthy crop. The grapes are from different organically farmed vineyards in the villages of Morales de Toro, Pedrosa del Rey and San Román de Hornija and were vinified by plot in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts. It matured in a combination of French and American oak barrels for 24 months. This is very young, and compared with the polished 2017, it feels raw. But 2018 has to be one of the finest vintages here; the oak is quite dominant and tannic, but the freshness and balance will make it develop beautifully in bottle. It has ripeness and black fruit and is spicy, with a touch of licorice and ink. This wine has a lot of everything! It's one of the years with more acidity since they started here in 1997. 112,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2021.

I tasted two vintages of their flagship and eponymous wine, starting with the 2017 San Román, from one of the driest years of the decade, resulting in a very early harvest that started in late August in San Román de Hornija. This comes from a selection of over 40-year-old ungrafted and head-pruned vines on stony soils with clay and limestone in different villages of the appellation. It fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in 225- and 500-liter French and (30%) American oak barrels for 24 months. There was no frost in 2017 in their zone of Toro; despite the warm year, they had rain during the harvest that slowed things down, and the wines are perhaps lighter than 2018. It's not a warm or classical vintage, at least for San Román. It's approachable and has abundant but fine tannins, polished, quite unusual, more elegant than powerful. All these wines feel quite oaky when young, so if you don't want them like that, you should give them a few year in bottle. 98,900 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2020.

The 2016 San Román was cropped from a generous vintage, which meant great balance in the grapes, good freshness, very fine tannins and less concentration. Having said that, I think the wine has great aging potential; it's not really a light wine (it's Toro after all), and it has structure and good grip and a classical profile, still quite generously oaked and in need of some time in bottle. They used a small percentage of 500-liter barrels for the élevage of some plots. It should turn into a very classical García wine with a few years in bottle. 100,000 bottles produced. It matures in oak for two years. It was bottled in January 2019.