This one takes a while to open up – it needs to breath a bit.  But once it has, a complex bouquet of roses, cocoa, slate, and faint tobacco notes gets things started.  The opening attack has more acid than expected, with somewhat lemony notes and red fruit.  Not exactly what you would expect from the bouquet, or color of the juice.  The red fruit gives over to an echo of luscious pear and grass, before chewy tannins come in to help deliver raisiny cocoa and hot stone notes (yes, that’s a thing, thank you very much).  This wine was a blind faith purchase from Javi at Vinalium.  There will be more such purchases in the future.  It was gorgeous with fuet and piquillos, and opened up in exactly the way Javi described that it would.

• Rating: Impressive
• Name: Altosíos
• Winery: Bodegas Costers del Sió
• Region: Costers del Segre
• Country: Spain
• Varietals: Syrah, Tempranillo, Garnacha
• Price: 17 Euros
• Where to Buy: Vinalium, Barcelona