Grapes of Spain

Elias Mora Crianza

"This is my classic wine. Toasty, dark berry aromas with mineral and balsamic touches." —

Victoria Benavides, winemaker

Winery

ELIAS MORA, BODEGAS

Appellation

Toro D.O.

Grape(s)

100% Tinta de Toro (Tempranillo), from 50-year-old, own-rooted, bush vines

Altitude/Soil

700 meters / clay over limstone with sand and pebbles on the surface

Farming Methods

Practicing Organic

Harvest

Hand harvested into small boxes at the end of September

Production

Whole berries undergo a 3 day cold soak, fermentation and malo-lactic conversion in stainless steel tanks

Aging

Aged for 12 months in 50% French and 50% American oak barrels, all second fill

Suggested Retail Price

$40

Wine Name

Scores

Downloads

Reviews

Elias Mora Crianza 2018

93 (WE) 93 (VfC) 93 (OB) 93 (WRO)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
93	Wine Enthusiast	Dark garnet in the glass, this wine has a nose of fruits of the wood and dark chocolate. Rugged tannins play host to flavors of black cherry, pomegranate, dark chocolate, clove and violet that endure into a long-lasting finish. Mike DeSimone - Issue May 2023
93	View from the Cellar	The Crianza bottling from Elías Mora is made from much older vines than the regular Tinto, with these bush-trained vineyards fully fifty years of age. The wine is aged in a fifty-fifty blend of French and American oak casks, but for this bottling, the barrels are one year of age. The 2018 vintage was a hot one in Toro, so this wine comes in at a full fifteen percent octane, but is impressively fresh and vibrant on the nose, wafting from the glass in a mix of black cherries, plums, chocolate, cigar wrapper, a superb base of soil and a combination of vanillin and spicy oak tones. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite suave in personality, with a plush core of fruit, good soil undertow, ripe, firm tannins and a long, complex and really quite well-balanced finish. This is a top flight example of Toro! 2030-2080. John Gilman – Issue #98 March/April 2022
93	OwenBargreen.com	Sourced from 50 year old Tina de Toro vines, this generous Toro offers a very fleshy texture with rich blue fruits that collide with wet stone, tilled soils and pencil lead flavors. Drink 2022-2032 Owen Bargreen - August 18, 2022
93	Wine Review Online	($40, Grapes of Spain / Aurelio Cabestrero): In the northwest of Castille, immediately around Toro, the Tempranillo grape is known as "Tinta de Toro" – ink of the bull. The local strain of Tempranillo has evolved over centuries to cope with hot days in summer and very cold nights for much of the year, and is often not trained on wires but rather “head pruned” as low-yielding “bush vines." This 2018 Tinta de Toro from Bodegas Elias Mora is a prime example of the region's ability to produce bold and expressive wines. Blackberries, ripe plums, and hints of cherries are interwoven with a layer of clove, graphite and dark chocolate, contributing to the wine's complexity. The tannins are firm yet well-integrated, providing structure without being overpowering. There’s no doubt that this wine has the structure and balance to age for at least a decade more. If drinking now, consider decanting to allow the wine to fully express its incredible depth and complexity Miranda Franco; Feb 6, 2024.

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Elias Mora Crianza 2019

93 (WE) 93 (OB) 92 (WRO) 91 (WS)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
93	Wine Enthusiast	Deep violet in the glass, this wine has a bouquet of brambly fruits of the wood, dark chocolate and espresso. Bold cherry and blackberry flavors are joined by notes of mocha, orange zest and ground black pepper. Burly tannins assert their dominance on the palate shortly after the first sip. Mike DeSimone - Issue May 2023
93	OwenBargreen.com	The 2019 ‘Crianza’ comes from estate vines planted to Tinta de Toro that are set at 800 meters. The wine shows a beautiful bouquet of dark raspberry and dark chocolate shavings alongside tar and underbrush notes. The palate is soft and refined with silky tannins and a big sense of weight. Finishing long, this is a marvelous effort that is already impossible to resist. Drink 2023-2035- 93 Owen Bargreen - October, 2023
92	Wine Review Online	This offering seemed surprisingly tart and acidic when the cork was first pulled, but opened up and broadened out in just a few minutes without any aeration or decanting. Still, rather astringent tannins in the wine’s finish suggest that this needs more time in bottle to achieve a fully coherent profile. One way to test that is to try the wine again a day later, which is exactly what I did with this wine and all the others reviewed below. When re-tasted, the tannins had rounded out somewhat, but there was still clear room for improvement with aging, as the wine’s acidity was quite bright and a bit awkward in relation to the ripe sweetness of the fruit. To be clear, I would be disappointed in a $40 wine that did not show a capacity for improvement from cellaring, so this is not a knock on this wine — just advice for how to treat it. One more thing: $40 would seem like an insane price for Crianza if this were from Rioja, as that’s become a largely woeful category populated mostly by $15 wines that taste more like the inside of a barrel than like “wine.” This is from 50-year-old, own-rooted bush vines, and is an utterly different animal. It deserves cellaring, and it you don’t have the patience or space to do that, lean toward the 2018 “Descarte” from this house. Michael Franz - Issue: June 6, 2023
91	Wine Spectator	A graceful red that deftly marries a dense core of fine tannins with a fresh and appealing range of ripe black plum, cassis, licorice string, toast and cigar box notes—a flavor profile that expands on the palate. Tempranillo. Drink now through 2027. 3,750 cases made, 700 cases imported. Wine Spectator - Oct.15, 2022

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Elias Mora Crianza 2020

94 (WRO) 93 (WS)

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
94	Wine Review Online	Bodega Elías Mora, Toro (Castilla y León, Spain) Crianza 2020 ($40, Grapes of Spain / Aurelio Cabestrero): Wine lovers who don’t know the history and caliber of the Toro appellation (located to the northwest of Madrid) may well bridle at a price of $40 for a wine designated as “Crianza,” so a bit of background is in order. “Crianza” is a word made famous in Rioja, where it really only serves to indicate a wine that was oak aged, often in rather raw wood that imparts more flavor to the finished wine than the liquid in the bottle. This, in turn, was (and is still) often explained by the fact that high-yielding clones of Tempranillo were developed to enable big wineries to crank out inexpensive wines juked up with all that oak and sell them in supermarkets all over the world — as well as in beach towns to foreign tourists all the way back in the Franco era during the 1960s and ’70s. Toro was never in that game, commercially speaking, and was never invaded by those high-yielding clones (though a few producers have used them), so the very appearance of the word “Crianza” on the label of this wine from this excellent producer is really only intended to distinguish the pecking order of the wines within the lineup of releases. My opinion is that the presence of the word does more harm than good, but then, nobody asked me. Regarding the wine, my opinion is that it is packed with ripe, delicious fruit flavor that easily outruns the considerable oak that is also evident, but utilized in this to guarantee longevity and add complexity. Quite nicely proportioned on a big frame, this a powerful and intense without being heavy, with purity of fruit (a hallmark of this house) that keeps the oak at bay. Already delicious, but better in five years, and likely much better in ten. Michael Franz; May 21, 2024
93	Wine Spectator	A harmonious red, seamlessly knit and expressive, showing a subtle, pleasing juiciness to the range of bitter cherry and black plum reduction, dried flower and thyme, smoke and espresso flavors. Features fine, satiny tannins that provide supple definition through to the lightly spiced finish. Drink now through 2030. Alison Napus – October 31, 2023

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