Vilano, Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León, Spain) 2020

 This interesting wine is brought up entirely in new French oak, but is only in the barrels for 9 months.  Quite contemporary in style, it is rich and full of fruit with nice spicy accents, but is emphatically a fruit-forward release with the wood accents showing up mostly on the finish rather than in the wine’s mid-palate.  At this price, with this much delicious, mouth-coating richness of fruit, this is a wine to reckon with in terms of commercial competitiveness.  Moreover, it is as well suited to restaurant applications as it is for retail sales direct to consumers, based on the strength of its performance right after the cork is pulled and the wine is poured, even at this young age.