Artadi La Poza de Ballesteros 2015

The nose reminds me of the best bitter chocolate from Venezuela, but with some wild herb notes, too! This spectacular tempranillo is very concentrated and muscular, but remains light-footed. Very long finish. Drink or hold.

The slightly cooler growing season benefited the 2015 La Poza de Ballesteros, which comes from a more generous vineyard with deeper soils that tend to produce more generous wines from riper fruit. The more approachable wines from this vintage saw a shorter élevage, and La Poza only spent nine months in barrel. Here, I did have a preference between this 2015 and 2014, always a fruit-driven wine, with lush fruit and roundness. 4,000 bottles produced. - Luis Gutiérrez. 

La Poza is a vineyard in Elvillar at 600m that gets the evening sun, and it produces expressive wines. The vineyard is clay-limestone, and in this cooler year the wine shows black fruits and greater structure with firm tannins. It will need time to soften and mature. Fermented in open top vats followed by nine months in new French oak. Drinking Window 2021 - 2030