2023 Arizcuren Monte Gatun Rioja DOCa 6pk 6x750ml

The village red 2023 Monte Gatún was produced with 48% Tempranillo, 25% Garnacha, 20% Mazuelo and, for the first time this year, 5% Graciano and 2% Maturana, varieties he's adding to provide freshness and to find a way to manage the thousands of hectares of Tempranillo planted in Rioja Baja, which, if planted at high altitude, controlling vigor and yields and especially harvesting at the right date, can still produce a fresh and straightforward wine that can be the backbone of a blend with local varieties that still deliver a more complex wine and with a sense of place. The Tempranillo is around 30 years old and the rest are younger vines, at 550 to 600 meters in elevation on the north face of the Monte Yerga on sandy soils with limestone. The destemmed grapes are fermented with indigenous yeasts through a pied de cuve by variety, blended before malolactic and then aged 70% in concrete vats and 30% in used French and Slavonian oak barrels for 12 months. He managed to keep this at 13% alcohol, with a pH of 3.59 and 4.89 grams of acidity, and the profile is as he explained: fine-boned and complex, showing the face of the southern Rioja in a balanced and subtle way. 15,856 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2024. ~93 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

A fruity, expressive nose of ripe cherries, baked plums, grapefruit and hibiscus. Juicy and vivid, with a medium body and some firm, chalky tannins. Pristine and bright in the finish. Drink now. ~91 James Suckling

~91 Tim Atkin, Master of Wine