Luis Cañas Reserva 2019

Luis Cañas Reserva is a traditional Rioja red made by Bodegas Luis Cañas in Rioja Alavesa. It blends Tempranillo, at ninety-five per cent, with five per cent Graciano, a variety that adds acidity, colour and a savoury, herbal lift. The grapes come from forty-year-old vines, whose age and low yields concentrate the fruit. Rioja Alavesa sits on poor clay and limestone soils at altitude below the Sierra de Cantabria, which shelters the vineyards and gives the cool nights that hold acidity and colour through ripening. The alcoholic fermentation runs for three weeks at twenty-eight degrees, a slower, warmer extraction that draws colour and tannin from the skins. The wine then ages eighteen months in two-year-old French oak, at seventy per cent, and American oak, with a further eighteen months in bottle before release. This long, gentle ageing in older wood polishes the tannin and develops tertiary character without heavy oak flavour. The colour is a deep cherry red turning garnet. The nose shows ripe black fruit, plum, liquorice, leather and tobacco with vanilla and spice. The palate is full bodied and balanced, with fine, mature tannin and a long, savoury finish. Serve at 17 degrees. It pairs well with roast lamb and grilled beef.