Luis Cañas, El Palacio, Rioja, Alavesa, Spain 2020

This is a lot, but everything is in the right place! 75% Tempranillo, 20% Graciano, 5% Viura, fermented together in a French oak vat, with malolactic fermentation in second-use 500L barrrels and 15 months' ageing also in 500L barrels. Intense red berry and blueberry fruit combine with spicy black pepper to create a layered and complex wine. It speaks to the zone; it is a wine very much from Alavesa (Villabuena de Alava, at about 500m) with direct acidity and impressive spice. Tannins are well managed even if quite grippy now but the wine has lots of life ahead. The oak is high quality and, again, quite obvious but provides all the framing that a wine of this substance requires.