Trasnocho Reserva 2014

A dense red wine from Rioja, built for long bottle ageing. Dark ruby red with a black core and violet highlights, ethereal and balsamic on the nose: sandalwood, black cardamom, pepper and vanilla, followed by liquorice, tobacco and freshly brewed mocha. The fruit sits deep beneath: black cherry, mulberry, dried plum.

The grapes come from 60-year-old vines. The estate in Samaniego farms 76 hectares across nine municipalities, split into 246 individual plots; 70 percent of the vines are over 70 years old. The Tempranillo grows on the limestone soils of Rioja Alavesa, which give the wines their minerality.

A blend of 90 percent Tempranillo, 5 percent Graciano and 5 percent Viura and Malvasia. Hand-harvested in 12 kg crates, 24 hours in a cold room before fermentation, then meticulous selection on the sorting table and separation of the bunches into shoulders and tips. For extraction, a PVC water bag is suspended in the must, pressing 70 percent of the juice without mechanically stressing the seeds. Spontaneous fermentation in small stainless steel tanks and 7,000-litre casks, followed by 21 months of ageing in 100 percent new French oak.

The entry is layered and deep. The mouthfeel is currently dominated by the generously applied new oak, underpinned by extract-rich dark fruit. The youthfully dense, fine-grained tannin is woven into the flesh of red fruit, while fresh acidity keeps the wine in tension. The weight and length signal just how much time in the bottle this wine still has ahead of it.

White bean stew with porcini and thyme, soy-glazed monkfish with sesame, beetroot and dark miso butter or Louisiana-style ribs.

Fernando Remírez de Ganuza built Spain's first mechanical sorting table in 1989 and founded his estate that same year; since 2019 it has been run by José Ramón Urtasun, with Jesús Mendoza as winemaker. Overnight pressing with the water bag is one of the techniques developed here.