Protos Selección El Grajo Viejo 2021

Seleccion El Grajo Viejo is a Ribera del Duero red from Protos, the appellation's founding winery, established in 1927 and named for the Greek word for first. It is a single-varietal made from Tinto Fino, the local name for Tempranillo, grown in Castilla y Leon. Ribera lies high on the northern plateau, where hot days and cold nights slow ripening and preserve acidity, and the sandy, limestone-rich soils give the wine its backbone and freshness. The wine is aged 18 months in French oak, whose tight grain lends fine tannin and measured spice through slow oxygen exchange, followed by a further 12 months in bottle that integrates the structure before release. It pours deep cherry-red with a garnet rim, showing ripe blackberry and plum over liquorice, tobacco, cocoa and toasty oak. The palate is full and structured, with firm, fine-grained tannins, bright acidity and a long savoury finish in the powerful Ribera mould. Serve at 16 to 18 degrees, decanted an hour ahead, with roast lamb or grilled beef.