Pago de la Jaraba, La Mancha DO (Spain) 2018

 I wouldn’t blame you a bit if you thought I’d lost my mind for according 95 points for a $29 dollar wine.  In fact, that isn’t where I started, initially scoring this at 93 when lining it up against the other current releases from this house, but it was quite significantly better when I checked the bottle (which was left uncorked on my tasting bench) again the next day, and on the day after that it was better still.  Trust me — that is a rare occurrence.  Once its charms had fully unfolded, the wine displayed perfectly integrated oak that offered spicy, toast accents to a core of fruit that was pure and fresh but also alluringly savory notes.  The proportionality of the wine’s structural components is essentially perfect:  Acid, fruit, tannin and wood are all evident but so well swirled together by the time the wine is fully aerated that none of them stick out, even in the finish, which is impressively long and symmetrical.  Seriously impressive juice at a seriously attractive price.