One of the finest vintages produced in recent years is the 2018 Santa Cruz de Artazu, a pure Garnacha from the oldest vineyards on the slopes of the village of Artazu, most of them close to the Santa Cruz Hermitage. The vines are often 90 to 100 years old and are planted on very white, limestone-rich soils at 450 to 600 meters in altitude. It fermented in open-top vats after a 48-hour cold soak and matured in 500-liter French oak barrels for nine months. It's quite austere; the wine is very young and was just bottled before I tasted it. It's a cool vintage with enough rain (almost 200 liters during spring), similar to Rioja. The ripening was slow, and the grapes were picked very healthy. So, the wine is fresh and clean with red fruit and very good tension, following a little in the style of the 2016, sharper and drier than the 2017, with contained ripeness. It's very harmonious and balanced, and it has very fine chalky tannins, long and narrow rather than round and ample. The grapes ripened well and developed full flavors, very Garnacha. 4,000 bottles were filled in December 2020.
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