Goodbye old friend. The last vintage of the ‘Rozas 1er Cru’. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

The Wine Advocate: “The last vintage of the ‘Rozas 1er Cru’, because the wine changes in 2022. The 2021 Rozas 1er Cru, a lieu-dit red from the village of Rozas de Puerto Real, is from the same plots as in previous years but cropped from a cool year. They used full clusters with long macerations, an infusion, and it aged in large oak foudres for one year. It's a serious, austere and cold vintage for this wine, which is narrow, mineral and sharp but with full development of flavours, as they picked the grapes at very good ripeness, and the wine finished with 14% alcohol. With time in the glass, it developed some Rhône-ish meaty notes. It has very fine and elegant tannins, rounder than those in warmer years. It feels superb. 14,761 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2023. Drink now-2032.” 95 points

Organic & biodynamic farming

Las Rozas 1er (the 1er is another Burgundy allusion) derives from vineyards located in the foothills of the mountain and therefore at a higher altitude (900 metres) in Rozas de Puerto Real. The soils here are sandy granite and silt. As with all the reds the wine undergoes lengthy maceration and whole cluster ferment in open top followed by, in this case, 10 months maturation in a concrete and large oak vat. The colour is fabulous – like pomegranate juice. A fragrant nose with notes of cherry, blood orange, delicate floral fragrances, thyme and a hint of rose petals. The wine also has immense salinity and razor-sharp precision.