Miros de Ribera Reserva 2020

Miros de Ribera Reserva is a Ribera del Duero red built from Tempranillo, the grape known here as Tinta del Pais. The fruit is selected from vineyards over 40 years old with yields held below 3,500 kilograms per hectare, and old low yielding vines like these concentrate colour, tannin and dark fruit. The high altitude plateau of Ribera del Duero gives cold nights and warm days, and that wide diurnal range preserves acidity while the grapes ripen fully. Harvest is by hand into small boxes, followed by temperature controlled fermentation in stainless steel over eleven days, with daily pumping over across a long maceration to draw colour and tannin from the skins. Malolactic fermentation softens the sharper malic acidity into rounder lactic acid before the wine spends 24 months in French oak barrels, which adds vanilla, cocoa and a fine grained grip through slow oxygen exchange. It is deep ruby with a garnet rim. The nose shows ripe plum and dark cherry over tobacco and sweet spice, and the palate is full bodied and structured, with firm tannin and a long savoury finish. Decant and serve at 17 degrees alongside roast and grilled red meat.