Ansa 2016

Even better than the maiden 2015 release, Ansa is made with old-vine Tempranillo from Elvillar and Lanciego at the eastern end of the Rioja Alavesa sub-region. Intense, serious and deeply coloured, this is balanced, stylishly oaked and built to develop in bottle with crunchy black cherry and blueberry fruit and a frisson of chalky minerality. 2022-31

The 2016 Ansa is a selection of their best vines, from a plot at Elvillar planted in 1945 (from which they produced their first "Viñedo Singular" in 2017) and some other small plots. It fermented in some special tanks designed to be able to remove the seeds and matured in 100% new French oak barrels for 12 months. This has 14% alcohol and a pH of 3.71. It's quite oaky and a bit creamy, spicy, smoky and with abundant, fine-grained tannins. I think new small barrels are often too much for Tempranillo. It's a bit too oaky for me, but quite good in its style. 5,958 bottles were filled in February 2018. It's still oaky after four years in bottle. Will it ever integrate the oak?