2020 was a cooler year with more rain, following the path of years like 2016 and 2018. The 2020 Selección Especial, produced with 70% Tempranillo, 14% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Syrah, 4% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, is harmonious and moderately ripe at 14% alcohol, with nice balancing freshness. It matured for 12 months in French and American oak (35%) barrels, one-third of them new. They harvested it before it rained, and the wine has more herbal aromas and feels a little more Bordelais, balsamic, even minty. The oak is neatly integrated and folded into the fruit. 474,626 bottles produced. There are multiple lots of this wine.

The 2019 Selección Especial, cropped from a warm and dry year, is composed of 64% Tempranillo, 15% Cabernet sauvignon, 14% Syrah, 6% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot and has 14.5% alcohol, coming through as riper than the 2020 I tasted next to it. It's also darker, round and powerful, with plenty of tannins, wide and concentrated. This is from a warm year, with lower yields, and it's a very powerful wine, balsamic with notes of aromatic herbs, a little more Mediterranean. 369,610 bottles produced and bottled in 27 lots after one year in barrel.

2018 was a cooler year with more rain and higher yields, and the 2018 Selección Especial—77% Tempranillo, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Syrah, 1% Merlot, 0.8% Petit Verdot and 0.3% Garnacha—shows very harmonious and better integrated oak than the 2017. Despite having similar analytical data, the wine comes through as fresher, more balanced, more fluid and with a finer texture given the quality of the tannins. 532,607 bottles produced. It was bottled in May and June 2020.

2017 and 2018 were very different years in the Duero, but at Abadía Retuerta, the killer frost from 2017 barely touched the vines. The 2017 Selección Especial is concentrated from the low yields and ripe from the warm cycle. It's a blend of 75% Tempranillo, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Syrah and 3% Merlot that matured for 12 months in barrels, one-third new. It's ripe and creamy and has an extroverted personality. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with a juicy texture and fine, chalky tannins. 443,446 bottles produced.

Selección Especial is Abadía Retuerta's reliable red blend produced in enough quantities to have good availability and with an approachable and easy-to-understand profile that reached great quality with the 2016 Selección Especial, from one of the best vintages in recent times in the region. It's 75% Tempranillo, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Syrah, 3% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, a blend that can change with the conditions of the year, as it's decided by tasting the wines. If in the past this wine was quite oaky, this 2016 feels quite integrated and balanced, ripe and medium-bodied, with a soft and tender palate, round tannins and moderate influence from the élevage of 13 months in French and American oak barrels. This comes from a cuvée of 1,675 barrels that produced wine to fill 453,000 bottles, 22,500 magnums and 1,100 double magnums. The quality is awesome for the volume produced. It was bottled between mid-May and early July 2018.