Virgen de las Viñas El Concierto Tinto
£8.25
The wine
A smooth and juicy red made from Tempranillo, showing red berried fruit and cherry notes in an easy-drinking, unoaked style. Uncomplicated in the best sense, and priced to be opened without ceremony.
Tempranillo is Spain's most important red grape and takes a different form in every region. On the flat, arid tableland of La Mancha it gives softer, more immediate fruit than the structured versions from Rioja or Ribera, and it is made unoaked here for early drinking.
The producer
Virgen de las Viñas
View all Virgen de las Viñas winesVirgen de las Vinas is a growers' cooperative at Tomelloso in the heart of Castilla-La Mancha, one of the largest in Spain.
Tomelloso sits at the centre of La Mancha proper, the flat, arid tableland that Cervantes made famous and that produces more wine than any comparable area on earth. The town is known for its cuevas, cellars dug beneath the houses to store wine at constant temperature, and for the tinajas, vast clay amphorae traditionally used for fermentation before stainless steel arrived.
Airen and Tempranillo are the grapes, both suited to drought and heat. El Concierto is the range name, and the wines are made in the modern manner, cool-fermented and bottled young, offering the sort of value that only a region of this scale can.
