2015 El Ciruelo

90-year-old Listan Negro vines at 480-520 m. Whole bunch, foot trodden. 20 days' vatting with no temperature control. Aged for 10 months in used 500-litre barrels. Lovely dusty quality, rocky, white pepper with a beautifully dry texture to the tannins. Elegant and fresh. (JH)

Always a favorite of mine, the 2015 El Ciruelo didn't disappoint. The old vineyard that the wine is named for gets its name because there is an old plum tree in the middle of the rasta-looking vines (ciruelo means plum tree in Spanish), and it's the vineyard with the poorest soils of all the ones they work and tends to deliver complex wines. It's mostly Listan Negro with perhaps 1% Listan Blanco (Palomino). It fermented with 100% full clusters in concrete vats with indigenous yeasts and no temperature control. The wine aged in used 500-liter oak casks for 11 months. It has the textbook floral and spicy notes and mainly a volcanic character close to pumice stones. The palate is elegant and fluid, somehow ethereal and coming back with more structure than you expected. 4,000 bottles were filled in November 2016. Dec 2017, www.robertparker.com