2013 Vino Volvoreta, Flores de Cerezo, Toro DO, Spain.
Maria Alfonso Hernandez, of Toro in Spain, joins the list of aspiring young female natural winemakers, she, like Arianna Occhipinti in Sicily, Indrid Groiss in Austria, Eva Fricke in Germany and many others around the world, is a dedicated artisan making deliciously pure wines that reflect their unique terrors, using organic farming where possible and applying minimalist cellar techniques with out chemicals or additives, with low or no sulphur and never much oak, she prefers cement, terra-cotta, used casks and tank. These wines are all about purity and freshness, they have caused some concern among critics as many a prior example of “Natural Wine” proved a flawed/dirty wine, but this issue has largely been put to rest. Maria Alfonso Hernandez’s Volvoreta wines are clear, vivid and well detailed showing bright flavors, focus and are easy to love. She makes usually three cuvees, with her top cuvee being the Probus, one with and one with out any sulphur, and this joven of tank raised Tempranillo from her Toro estate. The Flores de Cerezo comes from a selection of plots, all biodynamic, and is light to medium bodied with vibrant layers of red fruits, a floral nose and seductive and delightful finish, it shows creamy cherry, raspberry, strawberry and dusty plum notes along with mineral, chalky stones, saline, red cirrus and peach brightness along with hints of earth, anise, blueberry and tangy currant. This playful and unpretentious red is not the usually international styled reds you find from this region of old Tempranillo (Tinta de Toro) vines, where is is common to see lots of flashy new French and American barrique influencing the wine. This wine feels alive and vivacious, more like a Loire wine and it is clean and almost crisply finished, but with a nice lengthy aftertaste, very impressive, especially good for drinking now, drink from 2014 to 2018, it won’t blow you away with depth or complexity, but is has many charms!
($19 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive
