2018 Fedellos do Couto Bastarda

I first tasted the 2018 Bastarda in a blind tasting just after bottling, and I was blown away. It’s a delicate and ethereal red with lots of light, perfume and energy and tons of inner strength, personality and charm. 2018 was not an easy harvest: It had been wet and cold, and they had to work a lot. But they are extremely happy with the results, and they think it’s their best vintage to date. The production of this wine is inspired by the Trousseau from Ganevat, using grapes from Ribas do Sil and the banks of the Bibei—two different zones of Ribeira Sacra—with younger and older vines on different soils and perhaps around 10% of other varieties (Brancellao y Caíño) mixed in the old vineyards. They do a very soft and delicate vinification with full clusters, an extended maceration of some 60 days and an élevage of seven months in used 300- and 500-liter French oak barrels. The result is stunning, floral, perfumed, complex, super drinkable from early on. They were able to produce some 6,000 bottles of this gem, and it deserves a space in your cellar. It was bottled in August 2019.