2016 San Lazaro

Surprisingly enough, in 2016 they bottled one more vineyard separately to make the 2016 San Lázaro. It's another vineyard in Laguardia, but this one is on sandier soils, just below Bodegas Palacios. The vines were planted in 1956 (the birth year of Juan Carlos López de Lacalle), 1.62 hectares that used to be part of the blend of Pagos Viejos. This was one of the first vineyards they bought, around 1994. After a cold soak, the wine fermented for ten to 12 days in open-top wooden vats with indigenous yeasts. Malolactic was in barrique, where the wine was kept until completion. This has real finesse, with silky tannins, depth and subtle complexity, with great length and persistence. In short, this is phenomenal—my favorite among the new labels, the third in the hierarchy after El Pisón and El Carretil. And let's see if it doesn't challenge El Carretil with its gob-smacking balance after all. As with all their wines, this is sold without Rioja appellation, but it's produced with grapes grown inside the appellation's limits. 1,200 bottled produced. As a curiosity, the 2007 was bottled for a 75th-anniversary collection of wines for Vila Viniteca, their distributor in Barcelona.