Arzuaga

This brilliant violet-red-colored wine has a bouquet of blackberry, lavender and sage leaf. There is a soft note of violet on the palate alongside velvety tannins and flavors of black cherry, dark chocolate, clove, butterscotch and a closing hint of fennel pollen. The varietal label reads Cencibel, a synonym for Tempranillo.

Pago Florentino is always made from the best cencibel selection grown over pebbles on top of slate from the Solana farm at Malagón, in La Mancha. It is the first wine of Bodegas Arzuaga developed outside the Ribera del Duero. The grapes are cold-soaked for three days in stainless steel before fermentation. Post ferment, the juice is racked into French and American oak barrels to age for a year. The nose is suitably complex, pitching ripe red fruit streaked with espresso. On the palate, the rich red/black plum slides from front to back through a persistently long finish. The tannins are medium but present and will need three to five years to dissipate. Best now with grilled pork chops or a hardy winter stew.