Artadi El Carretil

The bottled 2022 El Carretil still shows faint notes of toast, but they are a lot more integrated than last year. Of all their vineyards, this one has more active limestone, and the palate has marked chalkiness and what Carlos López de la Calle calls "reactive" tannins, along with energy and a sensation of freshness. It was bottled with 14.68% alcohol, a pH of 3.57 and 4.95 grams of acidity. 6,000 bottles were filled in June 2024.

The nose of the 2021 El Carretil is an explosion of flowers; it's aromatic, perfumed, open, expressive and super elegant, clean, nuanced and showy. It has a seamless palate with very fine tannins, ethereal, with lots of energy and light. This has to be the finest vintage of El Carretil to date. Today, this hits the bull's-eye. Bravo! 5,300 bottles were filled in May 2023.

The 2020 El Carretil is fresh and fruit-driven with very fine, chalky tannins from the very high limestone and silt content in the soil, and it has the elegance of the sand component of the "salagón" soils. I found very good precision and elegance in this wine, from a vineyard that behaves well in less warm years and suffers in dry conditions. However, I found the wine to be spectacular, with balance and freshness, and it's very clean and fine-boned. It should develop nicely in bottle. 5,000 bottles were filled in June 2022.

The 2019 El Carretil was produced with Tempranillo from a plot of 3.64 hectares planted in the village of Laguardia at three different times—1930, 1975 and 1988—on limestone, sandstone and silt soils with up to 18% active limestone. It fermented in open-top oak vats and went through malolactic fermentation in barrel, where it was kept for nine months. It's mineral, it has energy and tension, it's not heavy, and it has freshness and acidity. It's serious and has very fine, abundant tannins and great balance that should make it age nicely in bottle. 5,000 bottles were filled in June 2021.