2019 En El Camino

The regional red 2019 En el Camino will be a village wine from Ponferrada in the future. It now contributes most of the grapes, but there are a few vineyards from other villages and even one from Villafranca del Bierzo. I love the expressive and slightly reductive nose, which is a bit wild, meaty and floral, somewhere between Northern Rhône and Burgundy. It has moderate ripeness and alcohol (12.5%), a medium body and fine tannins with very good freshness. This fermented with 30% full clusters because that's the amount they can tread with the feet. Forty percent of the wine aged in used barriques and the rest in stainless steel and tinaja for 14 months. They felt that the 2019 needed a longer élevage and that the 2020 called for shorter time in barrel. It develops further aromatic complexity with time in the glass—licorice and aromatic herbs. 12,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2020. This has grown in volume and quality; it's more serious and keeps getting closer to the other wines, and in future vintages, they are going to keep growing. In volume for sure, in quality we'll see...