Kinki Vino de Paraje 2023

Elegant and finessed, this wonderful vintage of Kinki hasn’t lost its wild side. From a parcel in Cobrana, to the north east of Ponferrada, this is a field blend grown on decomposed slate soils with a high percentage of Garnacha Tintorera and white varieties accompanying Mencía. Whole bunch fermented and aged in amphora, it is a spicy and herbal wine with clove, cinnamon and red pepper spice that opens to wild floral aromas and rosemary. The palate is plummy but cut with a touch of greenness that brings tension and energy and results in a dangerously drinkable wine. 2025-2030.

The 2023 Kinki has to be the most perfumed, floral and elegant vintage for this bottling; it's a grownup wine, not a teenager anymore. It has very juicy fruit and is really elegant and balanced, more serious but drinkable. It was produced with the grapes from a vineyard that has up to 25% other grapes, not only Mencía but Doña Blanca, Palomino, Godello, Alicante Bouschet (more than usual, which provides freshness) and Estaladiña. It fermented with full clusters, all the varieties together, in and open 5,000-liter oak vat. It comes in at 12.7% alcohol with a pH of 3.4, aiming at contained ripeness, low extraction and high drinkability. The ripeness is more complete and more homogeneous this year in the zone of Cobrana, and the wines are more serious, with a core of bright red fruit, fresh and elegant. It's always bottled early, before the summer, and was bottled in May 2024. 4,378 bottles produced. - Luis Gutiérrez.