Fine Tempo 2011 14%, Oleum Viride

Appearance

Almost opaque blacky red with a maturing red to brick rim.
Nose
Full with lots of fresh tangy black fruits like bramble, blueberry and plum with a hint of raspberry from perfectly ripened fruit and yet it is beginning to open up and shed a bit of fat. There is a balsamic note with traces of grapeskin and spice from the oak. Good start.
Palate
All that fruit is up front and still covers a good structure with ripe tannins and a certain lean mineral note. There is also a decent acidity which keeps it fresh. This is a really good, natural flavoured wine which is beginning to show some of that grace of maturity and still has a lot of life left in it. It is dry, clean and very long and I look forward to tasting it again.
Comments

This wine comes from a small organic vineyard on a pronounced slope in the Finca Las Lajas planted to Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot in 2005 near the beautiful hill village of Zahara de la Sierra, which overlooks a huge reservoir and is inside the National Park of the Sierra de Grazalema. The main agricultural product here is olives and while Oleum Viride (oleum viride is Latin for green oil) mainly produce olives and oil they also have between 2 and 3 hectares of vineyard on a mix of sandstone and limestone soils which are low in organic matter. The wine is made in a totally artisan manner with no regard whatever for what the market might want; if they like it they bottle it, but 3,000 bottles are as many as they can make. The wines are aged separately in a mix of a dozen barrels of different oaks and different ages for around a year - in a cave! Every barrel turns out something different and the result is a wine with a singular capacity for ageing. The grower is Luis Lucero and the technical consultant is Miguel Gómez Lucas.The wine is contract bottled by Compañía General de Vinos de Cádiz in Arcos de la Frontera and sent back to the cave for some bottle age. It is gaining a local reputation for quality and has won a couple of medals.

Price
11.80 Licores Corredera