Pela Roques 2019

The new 2019 Pela Roques de Mustiguillo Finca Conejeros is a Mediterranean Syrah from high-altitude vineyards to keep the freshness of the Finca Conejeros, a 3.3-hectare vineyard in the north of Requena planted in 1998 on sandstone and quartz soils. The vines are organically farmed and the wine is certified. It fermented with 50% full clusters in 8,000-liter oak vats with a long but soft maceration. It matured in those vats for eight months. It has 13.5% alcohol with a pH of 3.42 and 5.95 grams of acidity. It's a characterful and very different wine, not really varietal in the fruit sense but more marked by the soils (quartz and feldspar), a little reductive, flinty and herbal, a little wild and with a medium body and a velvety texture with some chalky tannins. Full of personality. 11,200 bottles were filled in November 2020. I sampled an unbottled 2020, and despite being a riper year, the wine kept a similar profile, marked by the place.