Hacienda Solano Finca Peña Lobera

The single-vineyard red 2019 Finca Peña Lobera comes from a 100-year-old vineyard on sandy and stony soils that delivers serious and austere wines with stuffing and balance. The grapes were picked on September 20th and fermented in a 700-liter concrete vat with indigenous yeasts followed by malolactic in 500-liter barrels. It had a mixed upbringing of seven months in 500-liter barrels and 12 more months in small concrete vats. The bottled wine is powerful and medium to full-bodied, with 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.75 while retaining some 5.1 grams of acidity (measured in tartaric acid per liter of wine), which makes it powerful but balanced. It has a good tannic structure and is nicely built, balanced and serious, with juiciness and a chalky mineral sensation in the finish. Very much a soil-driven red. 1,600 bottles were filled in May 2021.