La Cueva del Contador 2017

I love the voluptuous and expressive 2017 La Cueva del Contador, a preview of what's to come with the big brother in this challenging year. It's floral and perfumed, elegant and powerful, with some spicy oak and a surprisingly velvety texture, with super-fine tannins and great purity and balance. Here, you don't feel the 15% alcohol, all the components are in harmony. Like the rest of reds, it fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in new barrels, for 19 months in this case. It reminded me of the brilliant 2012. I consider it a real triumph over the adverse conditions of the year. 12,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2019. - Luis Gutiérrez. 

Five bush-vine parcels in San Vicente de la Sonsierra produce the grapes for this new oakaged Tempranillo, which again illustrates how Benjamín Romeo coped with the challenges of the 2017 vintage. Plush, glossy and smooth, this combines red berry and blackberry fruit with stylish barrel integration and alluring texture and length. 2023-30.