Pancrudo

One of the best new Garnacha bottlings from Rioja, the 2022 Pancrudo keeps the poise, balance and floral character in a warm and dry year like 2022. It does show a little more ripeness and some dusty tannins, but that's expected after the hurried ripeness. It comes in at 14.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.42 denoting freshness. It's a triumph over the adverse conditions of the year. This is a neoclassical Garnacha, produced by fermenting the uncrushed grapes with indigenous yeasts and a short-ish macerating and aging the wine in a combination of foudre, concrete egg and used barrique. 8,717 bottles and 250 magnums produced. It was bottled in June 2024.

The 2020 Pancrudo shows more balanced and approachable than the 2019, with more elegant tannins, fresher fruit and a little less alcohol (this is 14%). It's pure Garnacha from Badarán and is named after the Pancrudo mountain where the Cárdenas River is born, a zone that in the past was devoted to "clarete" wines (rosé mixing red and white grapes). It feels a bit closed and shy with fennel notes of freshness (but it is a ripe year too) and a medium-bodied palate with fine tannins and some austerity. It should develop nicely in bottle. 9,500 bottles were filled in May 2022.