WINEMAKER'S NOTES:
Juan Gil Blue Label is a blend of hand-selected grapes from older parcels, averaging 75 years with low yields. Parcels are fermented separately in stainless steel tanks and aged 18 months in new French and American oak barrels separately before blending. The wine is a red cherry color with garnet rim and powerful aroma of black fruits, roasted and balsamic notes. Complex and well-structured, unctuous and rounded, pleasant mouth-feel and very persistent with roasted, cocoa and spice hints. Balanced and harmonious, tasty, long and elegant finish marked by the sweetness from noble tannins of very ripe fruits, displaying its potential for bottle aging.
Vegan-Friendly
TASTING NOTES:
Since 2022, there's also a Cuvée À with a blue label, and that wine is partly aged in amphorae, but this is the regular 2023 Blue Label, matured 100% in French and American oak barrels of different sizes—220, 300, 500 and 600 liters—but some years ago, they reduced the toast and looked for coopers who made barrels that marked the wine less. This was produced with a blend of 60% Monastrell, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Syrah aged for 18 months in barrel. It's spicy, toasty and smoky, with notes of vanilla and cinnamon, ripe berry fruit and Mediterranean herbs. It's ripe at 15% alcohol (which is slightly lower than in 2022), with a pH of 3.75, 5.7 grams of acidity and 2.7 grams of residual sugar. It's medium- to full-bodied with abundant, fine-grained tannins and abundant oak-related flavors. Rating: 92+
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 92 pts.
The 2023 Blue Label combines 60% Monastrell, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Syrah from Jumilla. It was aged 18 months in French and American oak barrels. Intensely oaky on the nose, with vanilla and toasted notes, it is also dominated on the palate by wood, smoke and gripping tannins. This recalls a style from another era.
- Vinous, 90 pts.
