Montecito 2020

Ripe cherries with touches of mussel shells, balsam, spices and white pepper. Sweet fruit with firm tannins on a medium- to full-bodied palate. Pretty long.

Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor, jamessuckling.com

Montecito means ‘little mountain’ in Spanish. The vineyards are situated at the base of the Moncayo mountain and the Sistema Ibérico mountain range and that, coupled with the fact that winegrower Michael Cooper was born and raised in Montecito, made the name seem like a perfect fit. This is actually a ‘Crianza’ but we prefer not to label it as such. It has been matured in French oak (223L and 500L) for 18 months and is fine, elegant and expressive.