Peique Ramón Valle 2018

The astonishing slates and granites of Bierzo, and the region's unique position both exposed to yet protected from the Atlantic, makes for some sensationally exciting wines based on the Mencia variety (the same as Dão's Jaen). Our judges loved the brooding aromatic asperities of this jet-black wine, and its plunging wild-plum-and-mountain-herb flavours, improbably allied to a texture of pure velvet. Few wines, too, in our Best In Show selection this year have a longer finish than this eerie, haunting beauty.