A wine that has disappointed me in previous vintages was a revelation this time. Despite the challenging year, the 2017 Mazuelo de la Quinta Cruz has a floral and harmonious nose, and it's clean and expressive, medium-bodied and fluid, balanced and elegant, with very fine tannins and a long, dry and clean finish. It's a lot more elegant than the majority of Mazuelo/Cari?ena bottlings. It's also a single-vineyard wine from a plot on the east slope of the Calvario Mountain in Briones, 1.2 hectares planted in 1986. It has moderate alcohol and very good freshness, ripe without excess, and it should show even better with a little more time in bottle, as it still shows a little of the élevage in three 225-liter barriques. 1,485 bottles were filled in March 2019.