Cosecheros de Labastida Saigoba Jorge Gil 2020

Cosecheros de Labastida is a collective of five next-generation growers in Labastida, in the Rioja Alavesa, who farm their own plots and bottle them separately. This is Jorge Gil's wine, a field blend led by Garnacha and Tempranillo with the white grapes Viura and Moscatel co-fermented in, a traditional Rioja practice that lifts aromatics and softens the texture. The village sits at the foot of the Sierra de Cantabria, where poor calcareous clay soils and cool mountain air give wines of red fruit and freshness rather than weight. Farming is done with respect for the land, without synthetic treatments. The wine spends 12 months in barrel, where gentle oxygen ingress through the staves rounds the tannins and knits the oak spice into the fruit. The colour is bright cherry red. The nose leads with cherry and cranberry over dried herbs and a touch of liquorice, and the palate is medium bodied, fresh and savoury, finishing on earth and red fruit. Serve at 15 to 16 degrees with roast pork, lamb cutlets or aged sheep's cheese.