Condado de Haza Crianza 2022

Condado de Haza was founded by Alejandro Fernández and Esperanza Rivera, who planted vines beside the Duero river with the aim of building a Castilian answer to the French château. The estate lies within Ribera del Duero, a high plateau region where Tempranillo, here called Tinto Fino, thrives on limestone and clay soils. The altitude brings hot days and sharply cooler nights, a wide diurnal range that preserves acidity and builds deep colour and ripe, structured fruit. The Crianza is aged for fifteen months in American oak, which over this longer maturation softens the tannins through slow oxygen exchange and adds the coconut, vanilla and sweet spice characteristic of the wood. The colour is dense ruby with a garnet rim. The nose shows dark plum, cherry, vanilla, leather and tobacco. The palate is full bodied and structured, with firm but ripe tannins, dark fruit and a long, oak framed finish. This is a wine with the backbone to age further in bottle. Serve at 16 to 18 degrees and decant an hour ahead.