NOT YET RATED

2023: 93+ pts Wine Advocate
Drink Date: 2025 - 2038
The nose of the 2023 Peña la Mora 1er is truly spectacular. It comes from a lieu-dit in the village of Navatalgordo where they produce the El Tamboril; in fact, El Tamboril is in the lieu-dit of Peña la Mora. The wine is floral, herbal and perfumed with notes of rose hip, and it's crunchy, precise, crystalline, kaleidoscopic and symmetric. It has the stony and austere character and mouthfeel of the quartz, dry dust and cold white soil sensations reminiscent of some limestone wines with much finer tannins than this village delivers in warmer years. This year, there are finer tannins, a smaller size of the grain. The wine matured in two oak foudres over two winters. 3,574 bottles. It was bottled in March 2025.

Only the third commercial vintage. Peña La Mora was launched with the 2022, once the new winery gave them room to handle a parcel this small properly. High, north-facing, quartz-heavy ground above Navatalgordo with vines well past seventy, given a two-month infusion and sixteen months in wood and concrete — the longest élevage of the three 1er Crus. Lilac and violet on the nose, blackberry and blueberry rather than strawberry, and a silky, refined palate that rather belies how austere the site is. The connoisseur's pick of the tier, and still under the radar.

Appellation: Cebreros
Variety: Garnacha
Vine Age: 75+
Farming: In conversion
Soils: Sandy granite mixed with slate and quartz
Altitude: 1200+ meters
Fermentation: Hand harvested, partial whole cluster, natural yeast fermentation in open vats, 40–60 day maceration
Aging: 12 months in French oak vats