2016 MacRobert & Canals (Laventura) "Barranco de San Ginés" Rioja (Previously $75)

I'm glad I had time to pay a quick visit to the vineyard where Bryan MacRobert grows the grapes for the 2016 Barranco del San Ginés. It's a 1.18-hectare plot in the village of Laguardia that was planted in 1935 (or at least registered that year) with an old selection of Tempranillo on small terraces on a slope at some 570 meters in altitude following the contour lines. The vineyard has been organically farmed for the last five years, and it's full of life; it's a vineyard like the old Rioja used to be, intermixed with fruit trees and with small dry stone walls, wells and very shallow, limestone-rich soils. There are not many vineyards like this left in Rioja, and MacRobert is doing a superb job here getting the vineyard back to life after many years of herbicides; he's working with a small tractor or a horse, as the vineyard was clearly planted to be worked with animals. The wine is also beautiful, even more so in the great 2016 vintage. It's aromatic and fresh, with notes of red cherries, raspberries, blood orange and violets, perfumed, elegant and nuanced. The palate reveals beautiful balance and refined tannins, great harmony, freshness and length. A really great single-vineyard Rioja. Bravo! 1,500 bottles were filled in December 2018. (LG) (6/2019)