2023 Al Chelo

There are not many new wines here, and the first new one in a very long time will be the 2023 Al Chelo, from a selection of plots in the Valdafoz zone of the village of Corullón. It comes from a 100% north-facing slope, a very steep slope reaching 70% in some parts. Here, the grapes used to ripen only three years per decade, but it now benefits from the warmer seasons. It also wasn't usually vinified separately, because it was challenging and the volumes were small (it's also a favorite of the wild boars). This is 95% Mencía with 5% Jerez from 50- to 90-year-old vines on steep slopes with a northeast exposition at 612 to 675 meters in altitude on laminar slate soils that are worked organically with cover crops. The grapes were partially destemmed in oak vats with punching down of the cap and matured in barrel and bocoy for 8.5 months, a little shorter than the rest of 2023s. It comes in at 13% alcohol and with a pH of 3.59. It has the stony and austere nose of the 2023s, even more austere than Corullón and Moncerbal; it's a little reductive and flinty but with that elegant reduction that gives it a mineral feeling. It's full of energy and light and is clean, precise and focused, with great purity. It has powerful and energetic tannins, but it has a different texture from the rest. This was the most backward of the bottled 2023s. In fact, it felt like it was getting more and more closed with time in the glass, getting more and more backward. This is the only 2023 that showed a little oak; they thought it needed it to polish those tannins. Anyway, this is the one I'll keep for longer even if it's difficult to resist pulling the cork. There were around 1,000 liters of it that filled 1,244 bottles in May 2025.