Altos R Pigeage Graciano (in wood) 2021

Jean-Marc Sauboua makes fabulous wines at this four-trophy Rioja bodega, close to the mountains. His very finest are named Pigeage (after the method of plunging down the grape skins into the fermenting wine to gain extra gorgeous colour and flavour). This red is extra special because it’s made from 100% Graciano, a variety that today makes up just 1% of Rioja’s vineyards. Planted high, from very old vines and low cropped, the grapes are slowly fermented and the wine long aged in part new French oak barrels. Only just released, it offers up mesmirising flavours of crushed blackberries, pepper, smoky spice with a herbal and floral freshness. Critic James Suckling called it “Velvety, quintessential and polished.”