Àn/2 2016

The 2016 AN/2 is from a more structured and more powerful year than 2017, so they used a higher percentage of new barrels (which I already tend to find too much for my taste), and the wine has abundant charred notes of toasted bread, smoke and spices intermixed with the berry fruit and Mediterranean herbs. There is a luxurious, creamy character in these wines, possibly from the élevage in small barrels, a significant proportion of which are new. This gives the wines a modern and international style, where I find the character of the local Mediterranean grapes gets somehow lost. It has a commercial profile that will please fans of oaky reds, in a slightly fresher style than 2017. This was an average year in production, with some 270,000 bottles.