'Corriente' Vino de Cosecheros 2020

At the beginning of last century, cosecheros or growers from Rioja Alavesa usually produced a village wine called ‘Rioja Corriente’: common wine, young but honest, for everyday drinking, leaving ‘Riojas Selectos’ for special occasions. The idea of such a wine held great appeal to Telmo and Pablo, who now reproduce the style with bush-vine fruit from six such cosecheros in the Lantziego municipality. Many of these are old vineyards with a natural mix of Garnacha, Graciano and even some white vines among the Tempranillo. Corriente is made in raw concrete and aged in a mixed regime of barrel and foudre for a year.

The cold clay soil of Lantziego speaks very clearly on the nose, partnered by equally typical 'red heather' smells of the locale (thyme, lavender and more). No fruit bomb, it's a countryside wine, with meat, cherry, mint and licorice all in a swirl. There are hints of sweet spice and it has great freshness. The palate opens with succulence, juicy and laden with red berries, then glides out and down into the mineral-flecked beauty of gravelly natural fruit tannin, and closes out with perfectly judged astringency.