2017 Tumba del Rey Moro

The single-vineyard 2017 Tumba del Rey Moro comes from an ungrafted 70-year-old vineyard of 0.7 hectares in the village of Villanueva de Ávila, a cliff with a pronounced slope full of chestnut trees that provide shadow to the majority of vines. It's high in altitude, at 1,100 meters, and the soils are very sandy, from the degradation of granite. Like the others, this vineyard is worked biodynamically, and the wine is produced in a delicate way, with full bunches, a long and soft maceration (infusion) and an élevage of 14 months in a 1,000-liter oak vat. This high-altitude vineyard almost escaped the problems of the vintage but was hit by very late hail in August, and the wine feels almost untouched; it feels very complete and less evolved than the wines that were badly hit by hail. It has spices and rockrose and is a riper vintage than 2016, and it's complex and nuanced. The palate has abundant, fine-grained tannins and is nicely textured, with the chalk-like mouthfeel of the granite soils. This is one of the finest 2017s. 1,141 bottles and 60 magnums were filled in March 2019.