Pizarra 2021

This cuvée comes from the Sierra de Gredos, in the Cebreros area, in the province of Ávila and the D.O.P. Cebreros appellation, in Castilla y León. The old, organically farmed bush vines are rooted in rare pizarra soils — slate over metamorphic rock — at 950 to 1,200 metres above sea level, mostly facing east.

The old-vine grapes are harvested by hand into crates. Fermentation is carried out with native yeasts, then the wine is aged for 24 to 30 months in 400- and 500-litre French oak barrels from different forests and origins.

This wine reveals notes of blackcurrant, black cherry, sloe, elderberry, liquorice, Assam tea, tobacco, rockrose, rosemary, lavender, garrigue, dark stone and balsamic notes. The palate is broad and silky, carried by precise acidity and fine, delicately grained tannins. The long, saline and mineral finish retains lovely freshness.

The history of wine in Spain is so old that no one really knows who brought the first vines to the region. When the Phoenicians arrived some 3,000 years ago and founded the present-day cities of Cádiz and Jerez, viticulture was well established and Spanish wines were widely traded throughout the Mediterranean and North Africa. You could say that Spain is a wine miracle. After years on the sidelines of the fine wine world, it is now a major player. Investment and ambition in vineyards and wineries are resulting in increasingly rich, complex (often very high in alcohol) and spicy reds that are ever more popular with international consumers. Proud to have more land under vine than any other country, Spain is only just beginning to capitalise on this resource in a consistent way. Spain is an anarchic tangle of regions and sub-regions, just as its landscape is an anarchic tangle of incredibly rugged scenery. A glance at a map reveals the climatic diversity between Spain's many wine regions, from the green, rain-soaked vineyards of Galicia on the northern Atlantic coast to the sun-baked vineyards of the Mediterranean south-east. Spain's saving grace, as far as viticulture is concerned, is the average altitude of its vineyards, over 600 metres. Many Spanish vineyards therefore manage to produce grapes with good colour and acidity simply because night-time temperatures are relatively low and the grapes do not ripen until the end of a sufficiently long growing season. But there is real treasure to be found for those willing to dig, and now that a class of connoisseurs has developed in Spain, all kinds of ambitious investors have done their bit to change the image of Spanish wine. Today, a new generation of winemakers has quietly begun crafting spectacular wines and experimenting with grape varieties that would have been unthinkable until very recently. Wine remains an important commodity and an integral part of Spanish culture.