Las Paradas

The ambitious 2018 Las Paradas comes in a heavy Burgundy bottle and retails in Spain for around 85€. It's an old-vine Garnacha from a 45-year-old head-pruned vineyard on a slope. It fermented in 500-liter oak barrels with indigenous yeasts and matured in those barrels for 18 months in a natural cave at 13 degrees Celsius. It has a translucent ruby color and a ripe nose with dark berry fruit, Mediterranean herbs and hints of wet slate. It's powerful, with a fine thread and grainy tannins, closer to a Priorat than a Garnacha from Gredos. It's ripe at 14.5% alcohol, concentrated and heady with pungent flavors and a warm finish. A Mediterranean Garnacha. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered in December 2020 into 1,200 bottles.

Rich, opulent, with integrated sweet tannins. A lot of sweetness, without being doughy or heavy. It has the predictable soft volume of a quality Garnacha. On the palate, plum, appetising blood orange and a touch of liquorice. Very good work.

Aromas of dried raspberries, wild strawberries, cloves, dried thyme and sweet spices. Medium-to full-bodied with creamy tannins. Juicy and supple with a fruity, lightly peppery finish. Delicious now.