El Espinal de Exopto 2017

One of two new single-vineyard reds, the 2017 El Espinal comes from a plot in San Vicente de la Sonsierra at 650 meters in altitude, on sandy soils with clay and limestone surrounded by pine trees. The particularity here is that Maturana Tinta (a.k.a. Castests, a relative of Carmenere) was regrafted on Garnacha some 25 years ago, and this is a varietal Maturana, which is quite rare. It fermented in 225-liter barrels and matured in 600-liter barrels for 15 months. There is more concentration and more of everything, including the peppery and herbal aromas, and a pungent note of freshly cracked back peppercorn on the palate. It's a more powerful and long-lived year, and it's impossible to guess as Rioja because the profile is completely Atlantic and would fool almost everybody in a blind tasting. So, it's not for you if you hate the herbal character of the Bordeaux wines. 1,200 bottles were filled in March 2019.

Dark-violet flowers, spiced earth and an array or ripe cassis and dark plums that lead to a palate that has a gently herbal edge to the plush dark plums and berries. Drink or hold.
 

The second vintage of this brilliant wine is every bit as good as the first. Made with grapes from Miguel Ángel Mato's isolated parcel at 650 metres in San Vicente, this was picked on October 20th and has fine tannins, leafy, graphite and black cherry flavours, wonderful fragrance and some clove spice. 2022-27