VivaltuS 2017

Lots of dried, stemmy herbs and some dried fruit character. Apparently this was a challenging year due to hail, although the fruit on the palate is fresh. Sweet fruit with fine-grained tannins and a peppery finish. Drink now.

Brambled bilberry, loganberry and cassis fruits, the dark tight flesh with well-developed acidity that you have come to expect from this wine, a touch of bitter black chocolate on the finish. This is a slow build, well integrated, and the power is subtle rather than overt, at least in comparison to the usual style of Ribera del Duero. Strongly savoury finish, with fennel and aniseed. Jean-Claude and Jeff Berrouet consultants, with winemaker Montxo Martinez and owners Marcos and Carlos Yllera, made from old vines growing from 750m to 1,000m in altitude, aged in French oak.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the bottled 2017 Vivaltus despite the fact that 2017 was a challenging year and was decimated by terrible frost in April that resulted in losses of up to 60% of the crop. The end of the season was warm and the harvest early, so the growing cycle was quite short. The wine is floral, perfumed, elegant and insinuating; the oak feels pretty integrated, and the palate is balanced with very good tannins (not as refined as those from 2016 or 2018). A triumph over the adverse conditions of the vintage.