2016 El Carretil
Buying options
Tasting notes
The aromas to this are so complete and complex with smoked meat, dark berries, walnuts, spice and black tea. Full body, very deep and dark fruit with intense dark chocolate on the finish. Pure. Electric tannins and always polished. Drink after 2022.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Even if some compare it with El Pisón, the 2016 El Carretil doesn't quite reach the same heights, even though Carretil has to be one of their best plots, a limestone-rich vineyard at 500 meters in altitude in the village of Laguardia. The vineyard is further north and therefore a cooler place, even if it mainly faces south. This wine comes from three different parcels planted at different times (80 years, 50 years and 40 years ago), averaging maybe 50 years. This is always very mineral, with up to 17% limestone (the other soils have maybe 10%), and elegant, incisive and lively, with great tannins and lots of energy. The process is similar or the same for all the wines, so they try to express the differences provided by each place. And this has to be one of their best places. 6,500 bottles produced.
Single vineyard 500 m from El Pisón. Clay limestone with more chalk than some. Richer and smoother than Valdeginés with an attractively savoury undertow though with masses of ambitious tannin underneath. Masses of life, energy and a certain saline quality here. (JR)
About the producer
Owner and winemaker Juan Carlos López de Lacalle is among an elite group of global vintners whose expertise creates wines that stand above others in their regions. Artadi produces refined Rioja in unoaked and oaked styles, including superb Reservas and single-vineyard wines such as Viña El Pisón.