El Castro de Valtuille 2017

Mildew filled the 2016 vintage, so they jumped to the 2017 El Castro de Valtuille, a year that was not easy—it was very warm and dry and suffered frost. This fermented with 50% full clusters in stainless steel with a shorter maceration given the natural concentration of the grapes. This is already produced like the top ranges, with no pumps and very gentle handling in the winery. This comes from three parajes from the village, all old vines and thus a field blend where Mencía is the majority, but there are also small percentages of other grapes. It's polished and more developed, with abundant tannins that are going to require some hearty food. This is the only oaked red that they produced in 2017. 6,500 bottles. It was bottled in December 2018.