Rara Avis Prieto Picudo 2013

Raúl Pérez is among Spain's most respected winemakers, best known for his native Bierzo, though he works wherever he finds exceptional terroir. Rara Avis is his red from the native Prieto Picudo grape, grown in the VC Tierras de León in Castilla y León and aged in barrel. Prieto Picudo is a thick-skinned local variety that gives deep colour, firm acidity and grippy tannins, and it responds well to bottle age. This is the 2013, released with maturity, so the primary fruit has begun to settle into more savoury territory. Time in wood has softened the structure and added a frame of spice and cedar through slow oxygen exchange across the barrel. The colour has taken on a garnet edge. The nose is layered, with ripe black fruit turning to prune, undergrowth, leather, liquorice and aromatic plants. The palate is powerful and flavoursome, the tannins now resolved and the wine carried by a mineral, saline line and balanced acidity into a long finish. Serve at 16 to 17 degrees and decant if young-seeming. It calls for roast lamb, grilled beef or a mature hard cheese.