El Escocés Volante Valdelabarga Parcelas Singulares 2021, Calatayud

Valdelabarga is one of the Parcelas Singulares, or single-plot wines, from El Escocés Volante, the project of Scottish Master of Wine Norrel Robertson in Calatayud, Aragón. It comes from the Venta del Bravo plot, about 1.2 hectares at 680 metres in Torralba de Ribota, on a glacial plain of rolled stones and gravel. The plot appears in records from 1941 and is an old field blend of around 85% Garnacha with Bobal (Provechón), Moristel and a little Macabeo. The grapes are chilled after picking, then fermented slowly in open vats with around 15% whole bunches and gentle punch-downs. The wine is aged for 12 months in 500-litre Austrian Stockinger barrels, which add very little toast, and only around 2,600 bottles are made.

In the glass it is a bright red of medium depth. The nose is fresh and elegant, with intense black cherry and darker berry fruit and notes of nutmeg and allspice, plus a light creaminess from the barrels. The palate is ripe yet fine, pure and precise, medium to full-bodied, with plenty of very fine tannins, kept fresh by the whole bunches, and a long, balanced finish.

Serve at around 16°C. It is a fine match for roast lamb, game birds, pork with herbs, mushroom dishes and aged sheep’s cheeses. It is approachable now and will continue to develop in bottle until around 2030.

El Escocés Volante, ‘the Flying Scotsman’, is the family wine company of Norrel Robertson MW, run with Sharon Robertson in Calatayud, Aragón. Born in Dundee and raised in Scotland, Norrel worked in the wine trade before learning winemaking from the cellar up in Chianti, Portugal, Australia, France and Chile. He became a Master of Wine in 2000 and moved to Spain in 2003, where the old Garnacha vineyards of Calatayud inspired him to start making his own wines. He works with old, dry-grown vines at altitude around villages such as Villarroya de la Sierra, Cervera de la Cañada and Torralba de Ribota, focusing on native varieties, above all Garnacha. The vineyards have been farmed organically since 2014, without irrigation or pesticides, and the team turns vine prunings into biochar and uses labels made from sugar cane and hemp paper.