Octogenarius 2020

Octogenarius is a varietal Garnacha from Bodegas Gama in D.O.Ca. Rioja, a tiny winery run by Antonio García and Carlos Manzanares, whose surnames give the bodega its name. The fruit comes from vines more than 85 years old in the Najerilla and Cárdenas valleys, traditionally farmed and hand-harvested into 10-kilogram boxes, then sorted berry by berry. Garnacha here grows on the cooler, higher western side of Rioja, and very old vines on poor soils crop little, which concentrates the small berries and gives the wine its depth and 14.5% alcohol while the altitude keeps the fruit fresh and perfumed. The wine spends twelve months in oak, where slow oxygen exchange through the staves softens the tannin and adds spice and a fine toast without covering the fruit. Malolactic fermentation rounds the mid-palate. It is bright cherry red with garnet edges. The nose shows ripe plum and red berries, black pepper, liquorice and a floral lift. The palate is full bodied and generous, the tannin supple, the finish warm and long. This is old-vine Garnacha at its most expressive. Serve at 16 to 17 degrees. It calls for roast red meat.