Aranbelza 2013

The top of the range is the single-vineyard Garnacha 2013 Viña de Aranbelza, from vines planted in 1968 at 660 meters altitude on the slopes of Montejurra. The vines, surrounded by forests, are organically farmed and worked by horse. The grapes were picked on October 11th and the full clusters fermented whole with indigenous yeasts in oak vats with foot treading. They filled two 225-liter barrels where the wine matured for some 18 months. It has a subtle, perfumed nose mixing wild berries and fruit with a stony minerality that is quite attractive. It feels like a very subtle and somehow austere expression of the grape and the limestone soils of the zone, with superb balance and fine-grained tannins that give it structure. It's probably more powerful than what you might think at first, with good inner strength. This should age magnificently in bottle. Only 590 were filled in July 2015.