Bodegas Cauzon "Cauzon" 2018

100% Tempranillo from higher elevation vines near the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Cortes y Graena. Alluvial soils, hot days and cold nights provide the grapes with acidity, minerality and perfect ripeness when they are ready for picking. Hand-harvested and pressed into stainless steel tank. The wine ferments with native yeasts for 7 days on the skins. Bottled unfined, unfiltered with no SO2. Strawberry, raspberry and cherry up front, with a slight meatiness, some iron minerality and chalky tannins on the backend. A perfect companion to a Sunday roast.

In the South of Spain, where temperatures are meant to be high and the air is meant to be dry and aridness is meant to reign supreme, Ramon Saavedra defies the odds. Working less than eight hectares in Cortes y Graena - a municipality within the Granada DOP (Andalusia, southern Spain) - Ramon enjoys an extreme diurnal shift in the vineyard. Located on the northern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with vineyard elevations from 1080-1200m, the days are hot and the nights are cold. This achieves a slower ripening and an absolutely unique expression of terroir. Tending vines of Pinot Noir, Tempranillo, Cabernet, Merlot, Garnacha, Syrah, Macabeu, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Garnacha Tintorrera on primarily red alluvial soil, Ramon plants throughout his hectares rather than sprays. Bitter vetch is grown alongside native garrigue and leaf clover to achieve ideal, natural protections against erosion, fungus, and sunburn. It is a beautiful and singular project, within reach of fearsome mountains and the Mediterranean. Unfined, unfiltered, rich and backboned by zippy acid structure, these are wines to savor, which is to say, to love.