2023 Artadi La Poza de Ballesteros

Fewer than 350 cases made.  The 2023 Artadi "La Poza de Ballesteros" is certified organic Tempranillo from a 3.6-hectare west-facing plot in Elvillar de Álava, planted in 1960 on poor, pebbly soils with white limestone formations over dense silty-clay — the west exposure and deeper soils giving this wine its characteristic richness and volume, always the fuller-bodied counterpoint to the east-facing Valdeginés across the ridge. Harvested earlier in 2023 to preserve tension, aged 12 months in new French oak. Where Valdeginés has energy and charm, La Poza has weight and soul — same family, same conviction, opposite hillside.

94-95 RP - "I found some spicy oak in the unbottled sample of the 2023 La Poza de Ballesteros. They harvested earlier in search of removing the ripeness and gaining in tension; but the aromatics of the 2023s are of ripe fruit, and this is no exception—it's faintly balsamic too. But the palate is finer-boned and has more elegance and freshness and comes through as finer-boned. It has a little lower alcohol, 14.4%. "