Finca Villacreces Ribera del Duero 2018

The Finca Villacreces was produced to showcase the essence of the estate, mixing grapes from different soils fermented and aged separately and then blended into a combination of 88% Tempranillo, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Merlot that fermented in concrete and oak vats and matured in 225- and 500-liter French oak barrels for 15 months. I was expecting more freshness here, but I found ripe black fruit and something earthy/organic reminiscent of peat and coal, plenty of fine-grained tannins and ripe and earthy flavors. It's still quite oaky. Surprisingly enough, the 2017 showed better... 71,242 bottles and 535 magnums produced. It was bottled in July 2018.