Sierra Cantabria, Finca El Bosque Rioja, 2019

Viñedos Sierra Cantabria Rioja Finca El Bosque 2019 is a bruised blue/black colour, inky dark. Fine and complex on the nose, displaying floral notes, herbs, blackberry, creme de cassis, creamy toasted oak and coffee spice. The concentrated and dense palate has a profusion of oak, tannin, acidity and fruit, but is harmonious and well balanced. Savoury, rich, multi-layered and muscular in structure, with creamy oak, excellently textured silky tannins, and with bags of aromatic, ripe, dark fruit, somehow it retains a charming elegance.

Youthful, beautifully delineated and with a very long, pure finish, Finca El Bosque is a wine that fluently expresses its terroir. In an ideal world this large-scaled wine would be cellared for a decade or so and drunk with relish over the proceeding twenty years.

It's a 100% Tempranillo grown in Sierra Cantabria's gravelly 1.5 hectare El Bosque vineyard. Originally planted in 1973, the vines have now reached full maturity and supply an incredible quality of fruit which is hand-selected berry by berry. Finca El Bosque is put through its malolactic fermentation in new oak and is also matured in new oak - French and Romanian - for 18 months.

• ❖ ABV: 14.5%