ARTUKE – Finca de Los Locos 2018

Luis Gutierréz the critic Robert Parkers writes:

"The 2018 Finca de Los Locos comes from a single vineyard in the municipality of Baños de Ebro, a terrace planted in 1981 at 120 metres above the river with sandy and gravelly soils with a high limestone content. The varietal breakdown was 78% Tempranillo, 20% Graciano and 2% Viura, de-stemmed but uncrushed, fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged for a year in 500 and 600 litre oak barrels and a 3,500 litre oak foudre. As with the other wines, it improved enormously after an hour in the glass. It is a little riper and more immediate than the other single-vineyard wines and I would group it with the El Escolladero rather than the others. These two share a common profile (all four wines are fermented in the same way) but are more powerful and slightly more fruit-driven due to the soils (gravel in this case), the stronger sunlight and the higher clay content in El Escolladero. The long and complete cycle allowed the grapes to ripen thoroughly and the wine feels quite round, with polished tannins and ripe flavours and structure over the chalky backbone. 10,000 bottles were produced. It was bottled in January 2020."