Atalaque (Rodriguez de Vera), Garnacha del Horcajo, Mentrida 2021 - 75cl

Pepe Rodriguez de Vera works old bush vines in Mentrida, the corner of Castilla-La Mancha that sits just south of the Sierra de Gredos. The Garnacha del Horcajo comes from a single plot, El Horcajo, where ungrafted vines run between 70 and 120 years old on sandy soils. His aim is a lighter, more transparent style of Garnacha, closer in spirit to Burgundy than to the broad, high-alcohol reds the region once traded on, and the wine is raised for twelve months in French oak.

The 2021 opens on red and black fruit, cherry and wild strawberry, threaded with spice, a mineral edge and toast that sits well back in the frame. The palate is dry and medium-bodied, the warmth of the fruit reined in by fresh acidity, with dusty, fine-grained tannins carrying a long close. It reads as elegant rather than powerful, and that restraint is the point. Drinking well now, it has the structure to hold for another five or six years.

How to Serve

Serve at 15-16C in a large-bowled glass. It gains aromatic reach after ten minutes open; a short decant does no harm but is not essential.

Where to Drink It

Noble Rot, Lamb's Conduit Street - a natural home for old-vine Garnacha of this stripe.
Brat, Shoreditch - the wood-fire cooking flatters its spice.
Planque, Haggerston - for the kind of cellar that hunts down bottles like this.

Food Pairings

Try it with roast partridge, the game and the wild-strawberry fruit meeting in the middle.