Silencio de Miros 2021

Silencio de Miros is a Tinto Fino from Bodegas Peñafiel, drawn from the winery's most treasured single vineyard, Parcela Rafael, which sits at almost 1,000 metres on the stretch of Ribera del Duero known as the Golden Mile for its concentration of leading wineries. Altitude is the defining factor here: the high, exposed site gives cold nights and a wide diurnal range that hold natural acidity and build colour and tannin in the thick skinned Tinto Fino, the local Tempranillo clone. Harvest usually falls in mid October once the grapes are fully ripe, and the fruit is picked into 12 kg boxes to keep the berries whole until the cellar. The wine then spends twelve months in French oak, where measured oxygen ingress through the wood rounds the firm tannins and folds in spice and vanilla. The result is a deeply coloured red with a nose of ripe plum, dark cherry and liquorice over cedar and pepper, and a structured, full bodied palate carried by fresh acidity and a long, savoury finish. Serve at 17 to 18 degrees with an hour in the decanter, alongside grilled red meat or game.