Ars Mácula 2005 (Magnum)

"The 2004 Tandem is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The nose reveals notes of cedar, smoke, clove, mineral, red currants, and black currants. This leads to a Bordeaux-like wine with some elegance, good depth, and several years of aging potential. Enjoy it from 2010 to 2018."

"This is a beautiful new bodega founded in 2003 by a young couple who originally worked at Palacio de la Vega: Alicia Eyaralar, who is the winemaker, and José-María Fraile, along with investment from family and friends. Like most state-of-the-art bodegas it’s built on a hillside so that the wines can be moved by gravity and, for a good, green measure, it has grass growing on the roof. There are 22 ha of vineyards at around 600m altitude, growing Tempranillo, Cabernet-Sauvignon and Merlot, managed by father-and-son team Pedro Jesús and Angel Lizarraga, and the first vintage in the new cellar was made in 2004. José-María describes the style as ‘mountain wines and, interestingly, they age the wines not in the traditional 225-litre barricas, but in 300-litre barrels of Alliers oak’".

18/20 Ars Macula 2004