Dominio del Águila Canta la Perdiz 2020

Jorge Monzon and Isabel Rodero founded Dominio del Aguila in 2010 at La Aguilera in Burgos, within D.O. Ribera del Duero, after Monzon trained in Bordeaux and worked at Romanee-Conti and Vega Sicilia. They farm thirty hectares organically, and Canta la Perdiz comes from old field-blend vineyards where Tempranillo grows interplanted with a handful of local white varieties, picked and fermented together as the old growers did. The vineyards sit high on the Castilian plateau, where a strong diurnal range and poor limestone soils keep yields low and acidity firm. The wine is raised for thirty months in oak barrels, an unusually long elevage that demands healthy fruit and slowly builds tertiary complexity through oxygen exchange, resolving tannin while layering tobacco, cedar and leather over the fruit. The colour is deep garnet. The nose is complex and savoury, with dark plum and red berry giving way to tobacco, leather, liquorice and dried earth. The palate is full and firm, the tannin fine after long ageing, the finish persistent. Decant an hour ahead and serve at 17 degrees. It is a wine for roast meat and game.