Pago de Otazu Tinto 2021

I also tasted two vintages of the red Pago de Otazu, of which the 2021 Pago de Otazu was 57% Merlot and 43% Cabernet Sauvignon from limestone soils that are the focus of their work: reducing yields and removing herbicides (currently in transition to get the organic certification) and using cover crops. The bunches are cooled down and then destemmed, and the grapes fermented in small concrete vats and then were racked to French oak barrels, mostly used, for malolactic and 12 months of aging. It has good ripeness, 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.5. 15,465 bottles produced. I see a parallel between this and the white compared with the following vintage. 2021 was a riper year, and they had already started the transition to less ripeness, extraction and oak, which is pretty obvious in the 2022. 15,465 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2023.