2016 Numanthia

100% Tinta de Toro. Blend from over 100 parcels with vine age between 50–100 years. Carbonic maceration for 5 days before alcoholic fermentation, in stainless steel. Gentle extraction. Aged for 18 months in 225-l/400-l French oak barrels, 60% new, 40% second use. Bottled June 2018, released spring 2021. Deep in colour, intense in the glass with violet perfume on the nose. Spice, a hint of chocolate on the palate but this is not at all heavy or cloying. Concentrated dark fruit weaving between the tight tannin structure. Oak is very subtle and restrained. Rain during the growing season has added an extra freshness here. Ready to drink but a long future ahead. (AWH)

Tasted from a 10-cl mini sample tube. 100% Tinta de Toro from their three best terroirs (out of eight) where they work with over a hundred parcels of vines, from 70 to 120 years old, all ungrafted, dry-farmed bush vines. 18 months in French oak. Then bottle-aged for five years before release. Dark, fresh, brambly, blackcurranty nose. I like their description of 'scrub herbs' – exactly! It's a massive wine, of that there is no doubt. It has towering intensity, big (very warm) alcohol, powerfully muscular tannins and a concentration of black-olive, Bovril and sloe-berry-liqueur flavours. Cigar, cloves and Sichuan pepper stipple the hot-black-stones core of the wine. Despite the Mordor-dramatic concentration and drama, it has freshness and is undoubtably complex. Most people would want to drink this by the very small glass… (TC)

I was pleasantly surprised by the 2016 Numanthia, which is balanced and serious, with integrated oak and a soft palate with round tannins. It feels like a big improvement over the 2014 I tasted last time. 2016 was a rainy and cooler year with a later harvest when the old-vine Tempranillo was picked on September 25th and October 10th. It fermented with selected yeasts and matured in 225- and 600-liter French oak barrels, 60% of them new, for 18 months. 80,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2018.