Pago de La Jaraba is a family owned winery built in the heart of La Mancha. While they can trace a history of notable regard for wines grown on the estate back to the mid-1700’s their current goal is to produce high-quality, exclusively estate-sourced, flag-waving examples of the new “modern-traditional balanced” wines coming out of Spain. They follow traditional, sustainable methods and farm 80 hectares of vineyards. In addition they also grow cereal crops – wheat and barley as well as sunflowers, almond, pistachio and olive trees. Finally they raise their own flock of sheep on estate scrub/forest both to enhance and protect soil quality and for production of artisan Manchego cheese.
92pts View from the Cellar– 2014 vintage
The 2014 Pago De La Jaraba is made from the same cépages as the Selección Especial, with the malolactic done entirely in new French barricas and the wine then aged in a mix of French and American barrels for ten months. Not surprisingly, the wine is a bit oakier on the nose than these other bottlings, but it is well done and nicely integrated into both the nose and palate. The bouquet offers up a very fine mix of black plums, black cherries, cigar wrapper, a gentle touch of spice, good soil tones and a nice base of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite elegant in profile, with a good core, impressive nascent complexity and a long, well-balanced and moderately tannic finish. This needs a few years for the tannins to soften (and the bit of oak tannin here to be absorbed more completely), but all of the constituent components are in place and this will be a serious wine when it is ready to drink. 2022-2045.
90pts International Wine Review– 2014 vintage
A blend of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot, this semi-opaque bottling offers forest floor, soy and lead pencil on the nose. It is soft on the attack with considerably better density than the preceding wines with notes of red fruit.
90pts Wine Review Online– 2014 vintage
This is a relatively high-end wine from La Mancha, which hasn’t traditionally been known as a prominent source for fine wines. Examples such as this may change that, as this shows quite open, engaging flavors, tastefully subtle oak, soft but notable tannic structure, and very good overall proportionality and balance. The blend is 70% Tempranillo, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot. This blend of Spanish and French varieties works very well, showing open flavors (mostly black in fruit tone, but with a thin red streak also), fine-grained tannin, a bit of spice, and a relatively soft finish that will enable this to work well for sipping purposes while also doing well with food.
