Pago de los Capellanes Reserva 2022

Pago de los Capellanes Reserva is a long established Ribera del Duero made in Pedrosa del Duero in Burgos, from Tinto Fino, the local Tempranillo. The grapes come from low yielding vineyards on clay and limestone soils, where the limestone holds water and lends freshness and the low crop allows close attention to fruit quality. Ribera sits high on the Castilian plateau, where cold nights and warm days build colour, tannin and aroma while holding the acidity that keeps the wine fresh. In the cellar a cold pre fermentation runs for six days at 14 degrees to extract colour and aroma gently, followed by fermentation at a controlled 28 degrees over thirty days. Malolactic fermentation softens the acidity into a rounder texture. The wine then ages for eighteen months in French oak and a further period in bottle, where slow oxygen exchange in barrel polishes the tannins and the wood adds vanilla, clove and toast, and bottle time knits the whole together. The colour is deep cherry red. The nose shows ripe plum, dark cherry and sweet spice, and the palate is full bodied, polished and structured, with fine tannin and a long savoury finish. Serve at 16 to 17 degrees, decanting if young. A natural with roast and grilled red meat.