Vinos Aurelio Garcia Ribera del Duero Vinas Viejas De Soria la Guia De Aurelio Garcia 2022 750ml

The 2022 La Guía, which wears the subtitle "Viñas Viejas de Soria" (old vines from Soria), comes from the village of Matanza de Soria. It's from small plots of old vines, all of them ungrafted, at 950 meters above sea level. There are 13 small plots that make up 0.72 hectares, planted with Tempranillo and some white Albillo, 5% in the blend. It fermented with 30% full clusters and indigenous yeasts and matured in four 500-liter French oak barrels, one of them new, for 16 months. There were also two 54-liter glass demijohns. 2022 was a warm and dry year in many parts of Spain, but in the Soria part of Ribera del Duero, it was much milder, after a cold winter and with the usual rain. This wine is surprisingly aromatic and perfumed, with notes of red cherries, violets and herbs, clean, expressive, open and fresh. It comes in at 14.3% alcohol, with 5.5 grams of acidity, but there is a sense of lightness. It is medium-bodied and fine-boned, with very fine tannins and just some spice and faint bitter notes in the finish. It should improve and have a long life in bottle. 2,710 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2024.

A fresh burst of leafy herbs on the nose is a savory thread lacing the palate’s pureed black cherry, cocoa powder, iron, licorice root and espresso crema notes. This is silky and well-integrated, though the trim, lightly chalky tannins push through to firm the finish. Classy. Drink now through 2037. 500 cases made, 100 cases imported.