Jaros, Ribera del Duero, Spain (bottle price £24)
Jaros is a red wine from the DO Ribera del Duero made by Viñas del Jaro. Viñas del Jaro is a small château-style winery that has been making exceptional wines on the banks of the Douro for almost twenty years. The manufacturing house is located in Pesquera de Duero, behind a small forest of centuries-old oaks called Jaro and which gives it its name. This is a small winery that takes great care of the oenology and dominates the 46 hectares of vineyard that grows in the Finca el Quiñón.
This wine is a blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. A maceration (time with skins) was carried out for 14 days with its skins and then fermented at 26ºC for a period of 11 days to extract as much flavour from the skins as possible. The wine was subsequently aged in French oak barrels for 15 months. We think that this is a fantastically balanced but powerful wine and is the exact reason why the region has grown in popularity over the past 15 years.