2004 Bodega Numanthia Toro Termanthia

Community Tasting Notes (28) Avg Score: 94.1 points

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  11/5/2023 - mick978@gmail.com Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Superb

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  6/3/2023 - jazzop wrote: 95 Points

  Decanted due to the cork being damaged by an amateur waiter, but a good thing anyway due to the heavy sediment in the bottle.
  
  The nose was like nothing I've ever smelled before (on wine): phenolic and tarry, like something between a road-resurfacing asphalt truck and Islay whisky. After 30 minutes, things settled down a bit; but throughout the experience, the aroma was still disconnected from the taste.
  
  Hitting the palate, I got strong anise, cassis, garrigue, and dark stone fruit and dark berry notes. The second wave of flavor was similar to a Gran Reserva: tobacco, raisin, prune, with cedar whiffs after swallowing. At certain moments, I felt like someone had added old tawny port to my glass in small amounts with a pipette.
  
  I really don't know how to characterize this wine, as it is one of those uncommon Parkerized wines that actually lasts for two decades. It could hold up for 5 more years, or it could be already on the decline.

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  2/27/2023 - forceberry wrote: 92 Points

  A single-vineyard Toro made with fruit sourced from the ungrafted 4,8-hectare Teso de los Carriles cru, where even the youngest vines are planted over 120 years ago. Cold-soaked for five days prior to the fermentation, fermented and macerated with the skins in 2000-liter oak vats for three to four weeks, then moved into new French oak barrels for MLF. After MLF the wine is racked (again) into new French oak barrels and aged for 20 months on the lees. After this 200% new oak treatment, the wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered. 14,5% alcohol. Total production 4350 bottles.
  
  Dense, rather opaque and very deep black cherry color with a somewhat youthful garnet hue. The nose feels relatively restrained and fine-tuned for a Numanthia wine with layered, somewhat evolved aromas of dried cherries and wizened dark plums, some raisiny tones, a little bit of earth, light autumnal notes of damp leaves, a hint of fragrant floral character and a toasty touch of sweet oak spice. The wine feels massive, super-concentrated and voluptuous on the palate with a very full body and bold flavors of dried figs and sweet dark plums, some woody notes of savory oak spice, a little bit of raisiny dark fruit, light coffee liqueur tones, a sweeter hint of toasty mocha oak and a touch of evolved earthy character. Although the wine sports surprisingly good acidity and quite grippy and firm yet not aggressive tannins, the overall feel is still pretty fat and monolithic, all thanks to the sheer size and concentration of the wine. The finish is clean, juicy and quite grippy with a very long and powerful aftertaste of ripe dark plums and sweet dried figs, some peppery tones, a little bit of cherry marmalade, light woody notes of savory oak spice, a hint of extracted woody bitterness and a touch of milk chocolate.
  
  A huge blockbuster of a wine by any standards. Of the three Termanthias (2005, 2004 and 2001) we tasted, this showed the most sense of balance, harmony and complexity - but one has to understand that the term "balanced" is quite questionable for a wine this huge. I mean even though the wine sports quite a bit of firmness and structure, it still comes across as pretty fat, clumsy and voluptuous. I guess this is a stunning wine if you like huge, concentrated and super-ripe oak bombs, but for me, this is interesting and impressive pretty much only because I'm amazed how one is capable of crafting Tempranillo into something as huge and heavy as this. Age-wise I feel this wine is pretty much at its peak: there are some evolved tertiary qualities, but there's also enough youthful vibrancy to keep the wine from coming across as tired and ponderous. Although the wine can keep for many years more, I really don't see benefit in any additional aging - these Numanthia wines seem to fall apart quite suddenly once they've been on their plateau of maturity for some time, so keeping them for too long is always a gamble...

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  4/24/2022 - GonzaloManzaneda wrote: 89 Points

  Definitely not my type of wine. Apretado no, lo siguiente, concentrando, licoroso, joven pero ¿irá a mejor? Cargado de balsámicos y madera, muy alchólico, mentolados, muy extraido. Todo muy, muy muy.

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  2/14/2021 - SlimShaney Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Rich and layered and distinctly the top of Spanish tempranillo. Magnificent and totally full of energy at 17 years old.

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