Marqués de Cáceres Gaudium 2021

Marqués de Cáceres Gaudium is a Rioja Reserva built on old-vine Tempranillo with a small share of Graciano, made in D.O.Ca. Rioja. The house was founded in 1970 by Enrique Forner, already an owner of two Bordeaux châteaux, and brought a quality-first, French-influenced approach to the region. The grapes for Gaudium come from vineyards averaging seventy years old, including a one-and-a-half-hectare plot of pre-phylloxera vines, whose deep roots and tiny yields give concentration and complexity that define this top cuvée. Graciano adds colour, acidity and a peppery, aromatic edge that lifts the Tempranillo. The wine spends twenty months in French oak, a long élevage that softens the tannins through slow oxygen exchange and layers in vanilla, clove and cedar while the fruit holds firm. At fourteen and a half per cent it is full and ripe. It pours a deep, dense ruby, with a nose of ripe black cherry, plum, sweet spice, tobacco and dark chocolate. The palate is full-bodied and structured, with firm, polished tannin, fresh acidity and a long, savoury finish. Serve at 17 to 18 degrees, decanting an hour ahead. It is built for roast lamb, grilled beef and game.