Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild & Véga Sicilia Macán 2018 750ml

A beautiful, complex nose with creamy spices, cedar, fresh blackberries, red plums, truffles and hints of walnuts and mocha. Medium to full body with multidimensional tannins that are tight as a rock, coating the palate in a linear way, penetrating from the entry to the end with a final thud. Give it three or years to come around. Drink from 2025.

Aromas of Chambord and cedar pave the way for cassis, Simka plum, cocoa powder, coffee bean and baking spice flavors. Sturdy tannins come on hard and heavy and slowly peel away to reveal a closing note of violet.

The 2018 Macán has moderate alcohol (14%) and more freshness (pH 3.69), reflecting a cooler and rainier year that forced them to fine-tune the sorting and selection of the grapes, which fermented with selected yeasts. The élevage was in barrel (55%) and larger foudres for 16 months. 2018 was quite different from 2019, as it was cooler and rainier. The wine is serious and harmonious, which was a challenge, and winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga told me that they had to be very careful and sort and select the grapes. It’s textured and elegant, a style that follows the path of the 2016; it’s elegant but with depth, managing the élevage in foudre better, which was a learning process they started in 2016. 74,570 bottles, 2557 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in September 2020.

Minerally on the nose, with hints of iron and tarry smoke underscoring a lovely range of crushed black cherry and wild strawberry fruit, revealing accents of dried mint, espresso and bitter almond. Firm and fresh, this tightly meshed version evolves in the glass and lingers on the lightly spiced finish. Drink now through 2030. 6,214 cases made, 580 cases imported. (Alison Napjus)