Ordóñez Triton Old Vines Tinta de Toro 2022

Ordóñez Triton Old Vines Tinta de Tor hails from 100-year-old vines and poor sandy soils that made this the only part of Spain to resist the phylloxera scourge—give this Tempranillo clone incredible depth. Grapes are culled from five plots in the Valladolid province, where vines were planted as far back in 1900 and 1947. It’s the genius of Jorge Ordóñez—co-founder of Bodegas Numanthia, one of the few Spanish properties that can truly be mentioned in the same breath as Vega Sicilia—to tame that black-stallion character into a seamlessly smooth package that the critics at Vinous saw fit to light up with 91-point praise. The estate’s ancient Tinta de Toro plants (as the native Tempranillo clone is known) look like the kind of bushes you see in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In this place of extremes, the temperature reaches into the 90s during the day and drops into the 50s at night, gifting the grapes with lush ripeness yet balancing them with invigorating acidity. The wine then gets spice and polish from a mix of French oak barriques that are between two and four years old.