The 2009 Finca El Bosque is produced from the fruit of a single 1.5-hectare vineyard whose name means “the forest,” planted with head-pruned Tempranillo in 1973. The soil is deep gravel with a good 10-15% of clay. The roots are very deep and the wine keeps the structure while the boulders on the surface make for a perfect ripening. The destemmed grapes have a three-day cold soak before fermenting in French oak vats and are foot trodden twice per day during the first eight days and once a day the following five, after which it has a post-fermentative maceration of 21 days. Malolactic and 18-month aging is carried out in new French and Centro-European barrels. It has a dark ruby color with a spicy nose with notes of bayleaf, white pepper, toasted sesame seeds and some floral and ripe dark fruit aromas and a touch of chocolate. The palate shows firm tannins and the flavors of very ripe grape skins. El Bosque is always a powerful wine that in 2009 managed to retain great freshness. 4,000 bottles produced. Drink 2015-2027. I tasted through the portfolio of three wineries belonging to the Eguren family and realized they were constantly mentioning that the wines were fermented with “yeast coming from their own vineyard,” so I queried winemaker Marcos Eguren what that really meant. It turns out that they have been carrying out an extensive study of the natural yeasts in their vineyards and found that 99% of the existing yeasts were non-saccharomyces. They have isolated two or three of this non-saccharomyces yeasts and a saccharomyces from their own vineyards which are subsequently used for the fermentation of their wines. These yeasts are kept at -80o C at the Navarra University, which is part of this research to avoid changes and mutations from happening. The study has not yet concluded. These are the wines from the Sierra Cantabria winery in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, which were extremely impressive and pure. Imported by Fine Estates from Spain, Dedham, MA; tel. (781) 461-5767