Avelino Vegas Áureo 2018

Avelino Vegas was founded in 1950 and now farms across several Castilian denominations, including Ribera del Duero, the high plateau where this Tempranillo is grown. The wine comes from old vines averaging fifty years, whose low yields concentrate colour, tannin and flavour. Ribera del Duero sits above 800 metres, and the wide gap between hot days and cold nights slows ripening and locks in acidity and aromatics, which is why a wine of 14.5 per cent still keeps its freshness. After fermentation the wine spends fourteen months in French oak barrels, where the slow ingress of oxygen rounds the tannins and the wood adds vanilla, clove and a toasty spice. The colour is deep, near opaque ruby, the nose showing blackberry, ripe plum, walnut, almond and sweet oak spice. The palate is full and structured, with firm ripe tannin, good acidity and a long, spiced finish that will reward a few years in the cellar. Serve at 17 to 18 degrees and decant an hour ahead. It calls for grilled and roast red meat.