La Solana 2015

The first of the single-vineyard reds is the 2015 La Solana. They only do single-vineyard bottlings of their own vineyards, and this is a plot that was planted with Listán Negro some 100 years ago, pruned following the cordón trenzado system, facing east and located at 350 and 450 meters altitude. It fermented at controlled temperature in concrete with 20% full clusters and natural yeasts. It aged in used 500-liter oak barrels for ten months. There are some meaty notes intermixed with the telltale freshly cracked peppercorns, dried flowers and wet pumice stone aromas of the Listán grown on volcanic soils. I think the 2015 represent a jump in quality over the previous vintages. The palate is vibrant and fresh, very tasty with fine tannins. There is a meaty character here that makes me think of a Syrah, and I think it could come from the iron in the soil here. 8,100 bottles were filled in January 2017. There will be no 2016 version of this wine. - Luis Gutiérrez.