Single-vineyard wine, from a 3.8 ha plot with a field blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, Granegro and Rojal, on a loam-calcareous soil, selected after several years of site research. At the heart of Rioja Alavesa. One of the most delicate, complex and deep Rioja wines ever tasted by me, a real jewel with accurate aromatic definition, precise and intense expression and, most of all, an amazing mouthfeel, with extremely fine grain and perfect balance. The finish is very slow and multi-layered, a feast for the senses, but I retain as the most appealing characteristic that unforgettable tact.

For reports and full tasting notes, go toTim Atkin MW's website.

The 2019 Yjar is the third vintage of their top-of-the-range wine designed for the international market and sold through the négociant system of Bordeaux. It was produced with a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and other grapes from 3.8 hectares of selected plots from the Remelluri vineyards, cropped from a challenging year with frost. This feels young but already very Rioja, marked by the Garnacha, which could represent around 30% of the bottled blend. It's tense and has abundant but fine-grained tannins, a little Italian in style. They kept a lower alcoholic degree in 2019, a moderate 14%, and the wine comes through as very elegant. This has to be my favorite vintage of Yjar. It spent 30 months in barrels of different sizes and foudres. 9,049 bottles were filled in June 2022.

The 2019 Yjar is a blend of Tempranillo and other varieties. It hails from a plot known to have been under vine since 1420 in the Remelluri property, in Labastida, Rioja Alavesa. With a light garnet color, it exudes intense, maraschino-like cherry aromas, accompanied by hints of bay leaf, sweet bread and herbs—all pristine. Dry and fairly lean, the chalky, reactive tannins and delicate, juicy flow create a compact yet nimble palate. It boasts a very long finish, lingering on its cherry notes with a lactic touch. This is a beautiful and delicious red, equally distant from the past and the future styles of Rioja. Certainly, this is a wine feat.

I tasted this at the property from barrel, thrilled to follow it now in bottle. Grabs you from the first moments with its sage, thyme, dried flowers and incense aromatics, clings to your nostrils, drawing you in, so much depth of flavour to the vivid raspberry and sour cherry fruits, delicate and yet powerful. Hard to describe how little artifice is conveyed in the glass, it's not a wine that is coated in new oak, instead it is delicate, poised, crafted, utterly gorgeous, so moreish. Harvest October 6 to 18, 3.8ha, old gobelet vines, with any replacements coming from massal selction. Iconic winemaking partnership Telmo Rodriguez and Pablo Eguzkiza. I hope everyone folllowed my advice from the first vintage to get on board because it is more than living up to its potential, and its tiny quatities means that first come are almost certainly first served.