Arrocal Passion
"This harkens back stylistically to the wines I fell in love with from...the early 1980s and is a superb value." —
John Gilman, View from the Cellar
Appellation
Ribera del Duero D.O.
Grape(s)
100% Tinto Fino, from the single, 30-year old Barrancones vineyard
Altitude/Soil
800 meters / mix of rougly 70% clay and 30% sand
Farming Methods
Practicing Organic
Harvest
Hand harvested fruit
Production
Destemmed grapes were fermented with native microbes in stainless steel tanks for 20 days with skins
Aging
Aged for 12 months 70% French and 30% American oak barrels, 1/3 new
Suggested Retail Price
$35
Arrocal Passion
2012
91 (VM) 90 (RP) 90 (WE)
| 91 |
Vinous Media |
Opaque ruby. High-pitched red berry and floral pastille scents are complicated by cured tobacco and smoky minerals. Shows very good clarity and a light touch, with sharply focused raspberry and bitter cherry flavors deepening and turning sweeter with air. Harmonious tannins build slowly on the finish, which shows very good persistence and lingering red fruit and floral qualities. This graceful wine was aged for a year in French oak, half of it new.
December 2015 |
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| 90 |
The Wine Advocate |
The extremely balsamic 2012 Arrocal Passion had aromas of mint, even eucalyptus, intermixed with red and black berries and plenty of spicy aromas. The palate is medium-bodied, with some fine-grained, slightly dusty tannins, with good balance. This pure Tempranillo matured in a mixture of French and American oak barrels for one year. 10,000 bottles were produced.
October 2015 |
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| 90 |
Wine Enthusiast |
Deep, earthy aromas of cassis and black cherry set up a full, balanced palate with subtle but present acidity. Black plum, blackberry, vanilla and dill flavors finish strong, with savory, saucy tomato notes. This is a classic Ribera wine; drink through 2020.
September 2015 |
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Arrocal Passion
2014
92 (VfC) 89 (RP)
| 92 |
View from the Cellar |
The 2014 Passión Arrocal sees no new wood, with its elevage done in a fifty-fifty mix of two and three year-old French casks- my kind of wine! This is one hundred percent tempranillo and offers up a fine bouquet of plums, black cherries, raw cocoa, a really striking soil signature, a touch of cigar wrapper and a gently spicy topnote. On the palate the wine is pure and fullbodied, with beautiful balance and nascent complexity, fine mid-palate depth, ripe, moderate tannins and lovely focus and grip on the long, bright and youthful finish. This harkens back stylistically to the wines I fell in love with from Ribera del Duero in the vintages of the early 1980s and is a superb value. While the wine is quite tasty in its youth, I would let this evolve with at least a couple of years in the cellar, as there are more layers of complexity to unfold! Great juice. 2020-2050. |
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| 89 |
The Wine Advocate |
The 2014 Passión is produced with grapes from the Barrancones vineyard, mostly Tempranillo with 5% Cabernet Sauvignon fermented in stainless steel and matured in a mixture of newer and older French and American oak barrels for one year. The nose combines dark fruit with some spicy aromas from the barrels. The palate is medium-bodied, with fine tannins and good balance. Quite approachable. There were 10,000 bottles produced.
February 2017 |
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Arrocal Passion
2015
92 (VfC) 89 (RP)
| 92 |
View from the Cellar |
As readers may recall the Passión Arrocal cuvée also sees no new wood, with its elevage done in a fifty-fifty mix of two and three year-old French barrels. The wine hails from the Los Corrales Vineyard, which is planted with forty year-old tempranillo vines at an elevation of eight hundred meters above sea level. The 2015 Passión Arrocal tips the scales at fourteen percentalcohol and is a fine follow-up to the excellent 2014 bottling reviewed last year. The wine offers up a bouquet of black cherries, black plums, a touch of cigar smoke, dark chocolate, a fine signature of soil and a discreet touch of smoky oak. On the palate the wine is ripe, full-bodied and very nicely balanced, with a rock solid core, firm, well-integrated tannins and excellent focus and grip on the still quite youthful finish. This is a touch riper in personality than the lovely 2014, but that is the nature of the 2015 vintage, and with sufficient bottle age, it should approach the fine quality of the previous vintage. I would tuck it away in the cellar for five or six years and then drink it with pleasure over the ensuing two or three decades. Fine juice. 2023- 2050.
Issue #75 – May/June 2018 |
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| 89 |
The Wine Advocate |
The single-vineyard 2015 Passión contains some 5% Cabernet Sauvignon from a warm and dry year. It fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in oak barrels for 12 months. This is not terribly complex, but it has nice fruit that still shows the vintage differences when tasted next to the 2016s. At the same time, it has less oak than the Selección, but it's still quite generously oaked. There are some dusty tannins and spicy flavors in the finish. 10,000 bottles were filled in December 2017.
August 2018 - Issue 238 |
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Arrocal Passion
2017
92 (VM) 91+ (VfC)
| 92 |
Vinous Media |
Shimmering ruby. Vibrant, smoke-tinged cherry, black raspberry and floral pastille aromas are complemented by suggestions of candied licorice and vanilla. Sweet and expansive on the palate, offering nicely concentrated blueberry and cherry-vanilla flavors that become livelier with aeration. Closes sappy, smooth and very long, with supple tannins coming in late. 80% French and 20% American oak, all used. 2023 – 2032
Josh Raynolds - February 2021 |
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| 91+ |
View from the Cellar |
The Passión Arrocal cuvée is made entirely from tempranillo, with the vines now forty five years of age. It is not raised in any new barrels, as its elevage is done in a fifty-fifty mix of two and three year-old French barrels. The 2017 Passión Arrocal comes in at 14.5 percent octane and offers up a superb bouquet of plums, black cherries, dark chocolate, a touch of cigar wrapper and just a bit of nutty oak from the used casks. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and beautifully balanced, with a lovely core, good soil signature and a long, ripely tannic and nascently complex finish. This will be an excellent bottle with a few years’ worth of cellaring, but it will probably take a full decade for it to blossom completely and hit its plateau. This is a great value! 2025-2050.
Issue # 85 - January/February 2020 |
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Arrocal Passion
2018
91 (VfC) 91 (WRO)
| 91 |
View from the Cellar |
The 2018 Passion “Crianza” from Bodegas Arrocal hails all from a single vineyard, perched at six hundred and fifty meters above sea level and farmed organically. The Tempranillo vines here are thirty years of age, the wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged for one year in a combination of seventy percent French casks and thirty percent American oak barrels. One-third of the casks are renewed each vintage. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a sophisticated blend of plums, black cherries, cigar smoke, a lovely base of soil tones and a very well done framing of nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and quite elegant in profile, with a lovely core of fruit, good soil signature, well-integrated tannins and a long, nascently complex and very nicely balanced finish. This is listed at 14.5 percent octane and shows just a whisper of backend heat, but carries its alcohol well and will age long and gracefully. It needs a bit of time to integrate its oak component more completely, but will do so seamlessly with some bottle age. Good juice. 2028-2055.
John Gilman - Issue #91 / February 2021 |
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| 91 |
Wine Review Online |
Although I both enjoy and admire this wine, one of the five current release reds must by necessity be my least favorite at its price level, and this is it. I have no interest in singling it out for criticism, as I’m actually not critical of it; my motivation is solely to maintain my credibility while slathering praise on the other four. The appearance of “Crianza” on the label indicates that this is the most overtly oaky wine in the lineup, which indeed it is, whereas the “Ángel” and Máximo” are both Riserva wines under the Ribera appellation regulations but show less assertive oak in their overall impression (probably more due to their plush fruit from low yields than any less actual oak exposure). As this softens and integrates in the years to come (and it has many good years of positive development ahead), it will improve much more than the entry-level wine, and lovers of more traditional Spanish wines should note that approvingly.
Michael Franz - May 18, 2021 |
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