Ribera del Cuarzo, Ribera del Cuarzo Clasico, 2023

Ribera del Cuarzo Clasico is all precision and finesse - a pure note of blue-black fruit, sweet cream and rising dough fills the room in which a glass is poured. Closer in are green pinecones, sticky with sap, burstingly juicy cherries, vivid purple bilberries, and fat clusters of blue-bloomed black grapes. With evocative violet character, and hints of liquorice and cedary pencil shavings, this has a restraint that echoes cru classe Medoc Bordeaux: an impression underscored by its lithe, fine-boned structure. An exquisite wine, this will impress now and should develop beautifully with bottle age. This is the produce of eight vineyards, which together showcase the diversity of the classic area of the Rio Negro valley.