2016 Bodegas y Vinedos San Roman Toro D.O. Spain 750 ml

When you’ve done it all, all there’s left to do is what you love. After 30 years at Vega Sicilia, Mariano Garcia Fernández could have easily lived out the rest of his days drinking back vintages of Único, Vega Sicilia’s $350 First Growth-caliber red. Instead, he opened Bodegas y Vinedos San Román with his two sons. 

Garcia Fernández’s 94-point 2016 San Román Toro, a 100% old-vine Tempranillo, is the latest in a lineup that has seen 13 out of the last 15 vintages rated 92-96 points by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. Plush and ripe, loaded with black currant, blackberry compote, and dried blueberry, layered with ample spice and a savory steak tartare note, it is another classic from the winery that the Advocate called “one of the leading lights of Toro,” writing, “these exceptional wines were suffused with personality, purity, a life-affirming sense of 'controlled opulence' that, to be frank, put many a more expensive Toro wine in its shade.” 

The 2016 is arguably putting all of Bordeaux and Napa Valley in its shade. For lovers of hearty reds the world over, this is a remarkable bargain. To call it a savvy cellar pickup would be an understatement. 

Garcia Fernández founded Bodegas y Vinedos San Román in 1997. Today the estate covers almost 200 acres planted mostly to Tempranillo, or as the locals call it, Tinta de Toro. The vines at San Román average 35 years old, but many are over 100 years-old, own-rooted, pre-phylloxera bush vines. That’s a mouthful, but what it equates to are some of the oldest vines in Europe, ancients that eke out tiny yields of thick-skinned, massively concentrated berries. 

That’s where Fernández Garcia’s deft touch comes in. Along with his son Eduardo, who handles the day-to-do operations at the winery, the legendary winemaker has led a renaissance of elegance in Toro, dialing back the unbridled style of decades past and replacing it with what Wine Advocate aptly called “a life affirming sense of 'controlled opulence.'” 

It all makes sense really, when you consider how far Mariano Garcia Fernández has come—Vega Sicilia winemaker at the tender age of 24, then 30 years making some of the greatest wines the world has ever seen. At this point there is little left for him or his wines to prove, and yet he keeps on giving, generously, much like this 2016.