Hacienda Solano Finca Peña Lobera 2019

The single-vineyard red 2019 Finca Peña Lobera comes from a 100-year-old vineyard on sandy and stony soils that delivers serious and austere wines with stuffing and balance. The grapes were picked on September 20th and fermented in a 700-liter concrete vat with indigenous yeasts followed by malolactic in 500-liter barrels. It had a mixed upbringing of seven months in 500-liter barrels and 12 more months in small concrete vats. The bottled wine is powerful and medium to full-bodied, with 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.75 while retaining some 5.1 grams of acidity (measured in tartaric acid per liter of wine), which makes it powerful but balanced. It has a good tannic structure and is nicely built, balanced and serious, with juiciness and a chalky mineral sensation in the finish. Very much a soil-driven red. 1,600 bottles were filled in May 2021.

Volumes are small at only 1,900 bottles from this 0.4-hectare parcel of Tinto Fino and 2% Albillo Mayor, but the quality is so good that the resulting wine is well worth tracking down. Planted over a century ago, it's a special site at 870 metres and has produced a scented, balanced, refreshing stunner in 2019, all chalky minerality, intense summer berry fruit and understated mountain herbs. 2024-32.