2016 Termanthia
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Tasting notes
The 2016 Termanthia, sourced from XIX-century vineyard plots, spent 22 months in new French oak barrels, 90% of which were new. This deep garnet red offers enticing dried flower, blackberry, balsamic, wild herb and grapefruit aromas, complemented by a cedar backdrop. Dry and rich, the palate reveals a light corset-like tannin structure that provides balance and complexity. This is a nuanced Toro wine with a long-lasting finish.
Critic scores
Average Score
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
Joaquin Hidalgo, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Termanthia comes from a rainier year that resulted in a later harvest of ripe grapes that delivered a powerful wine with 15% alcohol and soft acidity. It fermented in oak and stainless steel vats with selected yeasts and matured in French oak barrels, 80% of them new, for 22 months. This shows the change in style, and it has better freshness and more acidity than the 2015 I tasted next to it: the vintage was different, and the work in the winery also changed in the direction to have less extraction and less oak, showing more transparently the power of the old ungrafted vines. 9,800 bottles were filled in June 2018.
The 2016 Termanthia comes from a rainier year that resulted in a later harvest of ripe grapes that delivered a powerful wine with 15% alcohol and soft acidity. It fermented in oak and stainless steel vats with selected yeasts and matured in French oak barrels, 80% of them new, for 22 months. This shows the change in style, and it has better freshness and more acidity than the 2015 I tasted next to it: the vintage was different, and the work in the winery also changed in the direction to have less extraction and less oak, showing more transparently the power of the old ungrafted vines. 9,800 bottles were filled in June 2018.
Tasted from a 10-cl mini sample tube. 100% Tinta de Toro from their three best terroirs (out of eight) where they work with over a hundred parcels of vines, from 70 to 120 years old, all ungrafted, dry-farmed bush vines. 18 months in French oak. Then bottle-aged for five years before release. Dark, fresh, brambly, blackcurranty nose. I like their description of 'scrub herbs' – exactly! It's a massive wine, of that there is no doubt. It has towering intensity, big (very warm) alcohol, powerfully muscular tannins and a concentration of black-olive, Bovril and sloe-berry-liqueur flavours. Cigar, cloves and Sichuan pepper stipple the hot-black-stones core of the wine. Despite the Mordor-dramatic concentration and drama, it has freshness and is undoubtably complex. Most people would want to drink this by the very small glass… (TC)