Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva 2019

Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva comes from Dominio del Águila, the La Aguilera winery founded in 2010 by Jorge Monzón and Isabel Rodero in D.O. Ribera del Duero. Monzón trained in Bordeaux and worked at Romanée-Conti and Vega Sicilia before returning to Burgos. The fruit grows on 30 hectares of organically farmed vineyards on the chalk and clay soils of the high Castilian plateau, where cold nights and warm days slow ripening and hold acidity in the Tempranillo. A small portion of the white Albillo grape is co-fermented, a traditional local practice that lifts aromatics and softens the tannins. The wine spends 55 months in French oak barrels, a long élevage during which slow oxygen exchange through the staves polishes the tannins and adds cedar and sweet spice while the fruit settles into a savoury register. It is deep ruby with a garnet rim, showing plum, dark cherry, tobacco, leather and earth over fine oak. The palate is full and firmly structured, with ripe fruit, grippy but resolved tannins and a long mineral finish. Serve at 17 to 18 degrees, decanting an hour ahead, with roast lamb or aged Manchego.