Vilano, Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León, Spain) 2019

 Made from the estate’s oldest Tempranillo vines (including and brought up for 22 months in new French oak (and also undergoes malolactic fermentation in barrel), so this is clearly a serious effort, before one even pulls the cork.  And guess what?  It lives up to all its promising on-paper attributes.  Notably concentrated but neither heavy nor over-extracted nor over-oaked, it shows that the winemaker respected the fruit rather than trying to jack it up with cellar techniques, which was admirably wise.  I’m just a bit surprised that this wasn’t held for a bit longer before release, but what I tasted was a press sample straight from Spain, so perhaps this vintage isn’t yet in general release.  In any case, the wine is already delicious (at least to a palate like mine, that is constantly digging into new releases), and yet I have no doubt that it will improve considerably with another 5 years of cellaring at a minimum.  To be clear, it doesn’t need that much time to be enjoyed with food, as it is already very well balanced and impressively well integrated, but it will definitely benefit from that much aging to bring up tertiary aromas and flavors that will flesh out its full potential.  Terrific wine.