Oxer Bastegieta Tartalo 2022

Its name comes from a cyclops from Basque mythology, who came from the 'old world', a spiritual, dreamlike world, with which Oxer wants to evoke that small spiritual world that has now been lost. The label shows Tartalo emerging defiantly from the lake like Excalibur, looking askance at the flock of sheep that will be his food...

Tartalo is, above all, a unique plot wine, which shows the entire landscape surrounding the vineyard, but in wine, giving it that unique longevity and tannic fluidity. Red fruits, with marked notes of grass, thyme and rosemary with a mineral background. A fresh wine, with excellent acidity, soft and fluid tannins, with enormous length and aging.

The Wine Advocate: I was very impressed with the Tartalo 2022, which is aromatic, open, expressive, clear and very elegant, powerful and mature, but extremely refined, with very fine tannins and a chalky sensation on the finish. It is mature without being overly so, with 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.49 and 5.8 grams of acidity.

It comes from vineyards planted in 1920 at 600 meters above sea level, on shallow limestone soils. The composition is 87% Tempranillo, 10% Viura and 3% Graciano, coming from very low yields. Fermentation took place in 1,000-liter oak vats, followed by a 10-month maturation in 600-liter French and Austrian oak barrels.

Only 1,300 bottles were produced, bottled in September 2023. (Luis Gutiérrez)