There was one more vintage to taste of the entry-level red, as the 2015 Prima was in tank and ready to be bottled. The 2015 is juicy and young but it soon opens up to reveal a fine wine. In this vintage they started using some 500-liter oak barrels for the aging, where the wines age slowly, which is something they like for a wine like this where they want to preserve the fruit. This meaty red will result in some 200,000 bottles.

The entry-level 2014 Prima is a blend of Tinta de Toro, 10% Garnacha and a little bit of white Malvasía. It matured in used barrique and oak vats to keep the fruit. 2014 is a cooler vintage, from a very balanced year and the wines show more freshness. This Prima keeps the primary fruit and feels young, but it has good depth and a very pleasant mouthfeel. Some 200,000 bottles were produced.

The 2013 Prima was bottled in May 2015, and is a blend of Tinta de Toro (aka Tempranillo) and 10% Garnacha with a little bit of white Malvasía. The wine matured, part in used barrique and part in oak vats, in order to keep the fruit. 2013 was a cooler vintage, which in Toro produced a slow ripening of the grapes. Bright ruby-colored, the nose is cooler, earthy and showing fresh herbal aromas with red fruit and more mineral notes as it opens up in the glass, where graphite, peat and some notes made me think of a classical wine from Bordeaux. The palate is medium-bodied, with very fine tannins and good acidity; it is very elegant, balanced, fresh and easy to drink. 175,000 bottles were produced.

The 2012 Prima is produced with 90% Tempranillo and 10% Garnacha and other red grapes grown on sand and clay soils in Toro which aged for 16 months in a mixture of French and American oak barrels of different ages. It is very ripe with exuberant aromas of morello cherries, damsons and violets, with dark notes of shoe polish, graphite and peat. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with abundant, grainy tannins, good acidity, power and concentration, ending slightly warm. It was only bottled one month before my tasting, in May 2014. 160,000 bottles were produced. A powerful, drinkable Toro. Drink now-2017. Importer: Grapes of Spain, Lorton, VA; tel. (571) 642-0343, www.grapesofspain.com

The 2011 Prima is a barrel sample, a blend of 90% Tinto de Toro and 10% Garnacha aged in new and used French and American oak for 12 months. The nose is rather reticent with smoky black fruit and a touch of black olive, but the palate appears well-balanced with grippy tannins that segue into a succulent blackberry and spice-tinged finish. I would afford this wine another two years in the cellar once bottled. Drink 2014-2018. Bodegas y Vinedos Maurodos is one of the leading lights of Toro. Founded in 1997 by former Vega Sicilia winemaker Mariano Garcia Fernandez, they own 60 hectares of vineyard in San Roman de Villaester and Hornija, mainly planted with Tinta de Toro and Garnacha, the average age of vines around 35 years interpolated with vines on un-grafted rootstock. The oak aging here is very prudent, with around 20% renewed each year, both French and American. The present winemaker is Mariano’s son Eduardo Garcia Montana, who trained in Bordeaux and Burgundy among other regions. 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. What is more, a bottle of 2001 San Roman testified to a Toro that truly does age with style and panache. Importer: Aurelio Cabestrero, Grapes of Spain, Lorton, VA; tel. (571) 642-0343