Dido La Universal 2018

The red 2018 Dido coms from their youngest vineyards, mostly under 30 years old, on granite soils that provide freshness and tension to compensate for the warmth of the southern Montsant. It's a blend of Garnacha, Syrah, Cariñena, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from five different growers. The Garnacha and Syrah are fermented together with some 30% whole clusters and a long maceration, and the rest of the grapes fermented destemmed with a short maceration, all with indigenous yeasts and mostly in concrete vats. Sixty percent of the volume matured in barrels and foudres of sizes varying from 300 to 4,000 liters, and the rest was kept in concrete for 16 months. It seems like the combination of granite soils and the cooler year has worked wonders for this wine, which showed spectacularly. They say this is what they wanted to achieve with this wine; it is floral, expressive, clean and focused, with perfectly integrated oak, all the varieties complementing each other—not showing any varietal character—and a juicy palate with astonishing balance. This is truly outstanding. This comes at an unbelievable price and should be widely available. 88,357 bottles, 520 magnums and 35 double magnums produced. It was bottled between December 2019 and January 2020.