Macán Clásico 2020 Magnum

The 2020 Macán Clásico was cropped from a more generous crop. The grapes were put in a cold chamber for one night and then underwent a cold soak of three to four days, after which they inoculated the yeasts—in 2020, 25% of it was their native yeast. It fermented in stainless steel, and the élevage was 45% in new French and 5% new American oak barrels, 28% in second use barrel and 22% in stainless steel for one year. The bottled wine has 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.78 and 4.5 grams of acidity (tartaric). This is one of the most elegant vintages of this bottling so far. It has showy aromatics with notes of smoky bacon, a bit meaty, and the thing that surprised me the most was the velvety texture. 202,697 bottles, 1,998 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in August 2022.

Gonzalo Iturriaga uses Tempranillo grapes from more than 20 parcels in San Vicente de la Sonsierra and Baños de Ebro to make Clásico, Macán's second wine. Aged in 40% new wood, it's s fragrant, precise, chalky red with bramble, plum and blackberry fruit flavours, refined French and American oak and supple tannins. One to drink before the bolder 2019. 2026-32.

Black olives and a hint of black bean puree to the fresh black cherries, damsons and a hint of mint. Refined, medium-bodied palate with fine, fresh tannins that are present but not grainy. Really elegant and long. Drinkable now, but will develop well in the next six to seven years.