Alto Moncayo 2015 75cl

The eponymous 2015 Alto Moncayo is a ripe, powerful and concentrated old-vine Garnacha thathas 16% alcohol and matured for 20 months in brand new oak barrels, 65% French and the rest American. With that description, you can immediately guess the profile of the wine: a juicy, chewy, ripe and concentrated red with plenty of oak aromas and flavors. I found it fiercely oaky and balsamic, still very young and a little raw, in need of a good couple of years in bottle to calm down. It has a creamy character, with a lactic hint, a full-bodied palate and plenty of tannins. The oak is in the foreground and the tannins coat the inside of your mouth. It needs time. It's not my favorite style of wine, but within that style it's quite good. 58,200 bottles produced.<br/>Alto Moncayo produces ripe and concentrated wines mostly from old-vine Garnacha with the help of Australian consultant Chris Ringland. The wines are produced in a warm, powerful and oaky way, following the style of Ringland. 2015 was a warm and dry vintage in the Campo de Borja zone, and the wines show high ripeness. They told me they want to hold onto their top bottling, Aquilón, from 2015, as it's a very powerful vintage and needs to have some more time in bottle; they are planning to sell it after one more year in bottle, so I didn't get to taste it. The Alto Moncayo showed very raw and oaky, so I'm sure the Aquilón is too young now.<br/> Luis Gutiérrez 28th Dec 2018