2009 PS

Pagos Selecciondas. Dark crimson. Heady stuff! Just a hint of cocoa. Definitely sweet and at the limit. But I’m not sure it’s a limit I personally like. So sweet! Drying finish. Hard work. (JR)

The 2009 Aalto PS has a refined bouquet with subtle floral notes that waft from the glass with touches of cedar and sandalwood. The palate is full-bodied with fine tannins, beautifully integrated oak that lends it a sweet, almost coconut note toward the finish. It has great style and verve, yet deserves several years in bottle to fully integrate and evolve greater personality. Drink 2016-2030. ||I made a brief but profitable visit to the splendid Aalto winery, the joint venture between ex-Vega Sicilia winemaker Mariano Garcia and Javier Zaccagnini. The impressive, modern-looking facility in which they first vinified the 2005 vintage is incomplete, at least in terms of non-essential accoutrements such as a car park or a tasting room. Javier told me that the five-story winery is based entirely on gravity transfer and is equipped with tools to make the best wine possible. They intend to add the less essential “frills” to the winery once they have repaid the loan, which is soon, apparently. Early vintages from 2000 came from outsourced fruit, though now their wine is sourced entirely from their own plots from several villages (around 110 in total). A tasting of individual lots of the nascent 2011 demonstrated their heterogeneity and so Aalto is a masterclass in the art of blending as much as terroir expression. The “PS” is only produced in the finest vintages from the best plots, which Javier analogized to picking the best players for the Spanish football team. Some older vintages were kindly opened for me as a reference point, although frankly speaking, I felt that they were denuded of the quality of recent vintages since they had to suffice with out-sourced fruit that was vinified in a rented winery back in those early days. Wine Advocate.February, 2013