Acentor / Isaac Fernández Selección, Rioja (Spain) Maturana 2020

 My love of wine is well more than half about love of exploration and discovery, and as I write this at the end of July in 2023, this is the discovery of the year.  The grape is unknown to me as a varietal wine, but the result here is marvelous — in the literal meaning of that word.  It is a marvel that combines a bright, energetic freshness with savory undertones that are really perfect counterpoints, as this is either a light and refreshing red or a much more serious wine that’s coiled for years of development.  In that respect, it is like a three-dimensional drawing — it could be either of these, depending on which of its dimensions you concentrate upon. It reminds me first of tart blackberries — which I love — but also riper Bing cherries, and it is interesting that the fruit notes are for me black-toned but still so bright, as though there was a fruit like cranberries in it also, though the flavors just don’t ring that bell of red-fruit recollection.  There’s almost no cellar work intruding on the fruit’s ability to show its stuff, though maceration, fermentation and barrel aging surely accentuated the savory undertones that provide the interplay and complexity that make this a savory wine of intricacy rather than a mere curiosity.  Two last observations:  It is quite hard for a reviewer not to impose a scoring “ceiling” on certain varieties (when did you last see a Sauvignon Blanc scored in the mid- or high-90s?), and especially with a variety that a reviewer has never tasted as a solo performer.  I note this only to indicate that I worked my score out very carefully, and if I’m off, I am not off on the high side.  Finally, everyone who reads this review should not only remember the rare and recently revived variety “Maturana,” but also the name of Isaac Fernández, who is one of Spain’s most important winemakers, though you might not know that on account of his modesty.  Wow — what a find.