Dominio del Challao Garnacha 2020

The 2020 Challao Garnacha comes from a vineyard close to the Sierra Cantabria on silt-rich soils at high altitude that ripens late and produced a wine that has an incredible 12.5% alcohol but isn't green; the grapes are ripe and the flavors and aromas are developed, but the sugar doesn't go up, and they pick when the weather is going to change or the pH starts to go down. This has a pH of 3.3, which means lots of freshness. It fermented with 70% full clusters that are foot trodden and the rest of grapes destemmed but uncrushed, and all wines ferment with indigenous yeasts. The vinification is light but with a maceration of around 35 days. The wine matured in used 500-liter French oak for 20 months. The wine is surprisingly pale and delicate, aromatic and floral and in a style that is closer to the wines from Gredos than anything from Aragón or Priorat, or even Rioja, perhaps Valmira... It's delicate and fresh, but it has energy and inner strength and fine but incisive tannins. It develops more aromatic notes with time in the glass, herbs, but keeping the cool climate/Atlantic profile. A real surprise. 3,082 bottles and some larger formats were filled in June, a couple of days before I tasted it.

Dominio del Challao is a very exciting joint venture between Carlos Fernández and the Argentinian Manu Michelini. This pure Garnacha comes from the high part of Labastida at 600 metres and was fermented with 50% whole bunches. Taut, mineral, long and focused, it combines pomegranate and redcurrant fruit with graceful, savoury tannins. 2023-30