Matallana, Compania de Vinos Telmo Rodriguez 2021

The Ribera del Duero red 2021 Matallana comes from a challenging year but with very good potential for quality and quantity. It has grapes from different vineyards in five different villages on different soils, where they made a big selection to keep the very best grapes; they got 80,000 kilograms of grapes and ended up producing some 22,000 bottles. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and oak vats. It matured in French oak barrels of different sizes for 14 months. This is a superb classical Ribera del Duero with ripeness, concentration, balance and elegance and the freshness from a cooler year marked by the big snowstorm in January and a milder summer. It has 14.4% alcohol with a pH of 3.72 and 4.6 grams of acidity. It's very spicy and peppery, showy and extroverted, very spicy with some exotic notes of nutmeg, ripe wild berries, violets and herbs. It's medium to full-bodied with very chalky tannins and is tasty, almost salty. 22,450 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2023.

Plum ruby red, nuanced and subtle with an emphasis on fragrance and lift, violet, peony, rose, finessed tannins, poise and intensity, raspberry and redcurrant fruit. Savoury, subtle, joyful. I love seeing what Telmo Rodriguez can do in Ribero del Duero, and so will you. He's been producing this wine since 1998, with the grapes from the northern area of Sotillo de la Ribera down to Pardilla in the south, 11 vineyards covering 21.5ha across five different villages. Native yeast fermentation.