94pts Wine AdvocateLike the rest of the 2022s, the 2022 Sensal is slightly riper and rounder than the more austere 2021, with 13.71% alcohol and integrated acidity. Despite the lower yields of the year, Revert produced 5,500 bottles, a little more than bef
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94pts Wine Advocate
Like the rest of the 2022s, the 2022 Sensal is slightly riper and rounder than the more austere 2021, with 13.71% alcohol and integrated acidity. Despite the lower yields of the year, Revert produced 5,500 bottles, a little more than before, as new vines come into production. Also, the higher percentage of grapes from higher altitudes has given the wine a more serious profile. It has a paler color and a more soil-driven profile; the wine is more serious, and the chalky sensation is a lot stronger in the palate. This is superb and feels somewhat more ethereal than the 2021, despite the adverse conditions of the year. It was bottled in May 2023. Drinking Window: 2023 – 2028
Javi Revert is one of the most exciting young growers in the Mediterranean zone of Spain. He started in 2016 while working at Celler del Roure, recovering old vines planted by his great grandfather in the village of La Font de la Figuera in Valencia. He then planted some more in the same place, the north-facing side of the highest mountain in the zone. He’s working with local Mediterranean varieties and focusing on the vineyards and has planted mostly Arcos and Garnacha. In 2023, he planted a further three hectares of Arcos close to Simeta and has regrafted the plot next to Micalet with vines from there. When all these new plantings come into production, he’ll have 12.42 hectares. He makes four wines, three single-vineyard ones and one, Sensal, from different vineyards in the same lieu-dit. Starting in 2028, he should be able to produce some 30,000 bottles. In 2023, he produced half of that. He’s also improving the winery with a new underground barrel room to provide better conditions for the aging of the wines.
I tasted his range from 2021 and 2022, two different vintages. For him, 2021 was a great vintage, similar to 2020 but with some summer rains that prolonged the cycle and provided grapes with more energy and liveliness that translated into austerity and purity in the wines, which are Mediterranean, balanced and ripe but with great finesse and freshness. 2022 was more challenging, with good rain during the winter and spring but marked by hail the 1st of May that lowered yields and resulted in an earlier harvest. That was accentuated by various intense heat waves during the summer. Those circumstances make importance of the place more evident, and the mountain vineyards on white soils allowed him to harvest into September with good balance between ripeness and acidity. These wines have new, more elegant and serious labels.
Furthermore, 2021 is the first vintage in his new winery, as he was working in 80 square meters before and now he has plenty of space. He also has two full-time employees, as he was doing everything himself before; so each person works four hectares, which for him is a good measure in the Mediterranean, and the improvement in the vineyards is noticeable. He has also started working with plant infusions and has lowered the amount of copper used, and the vines are still very green at harvest time, which was triggered by the 2022 hail.
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