The 2020 Norte is the top-of-the-range red from a north-facing plot in Laguardia at 720 meters in altitude on limestone soils with the mother rock 50 centimeters below the surface. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and matured in French oak barrels and concrete for 12 months. It has 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.48 with 6.15 grams of acidity. This keeps the powerful but fresh and balanced profile, ripe and concentrated. This is still young and needs some more time in bottle to polish the abundant chalky tannins, but there is more restraint and even a touch of austerity, showing a cooler vintage. 11,000 bottles produced.

The 2019 Norte showcases the style of the year with a powerful and ripe wine with 15.11% alcohol, good acidity and plenty of tannins. This matured in French oak barrels (with some new ones, which is what he tends to do in powerful years, use more new barrels, which to me is a bit like adding gasoline to the fire), and San Pedro thinks the wine is going to need more time in bottle. This is riper and oakier than other vintages. This is more Mediterranean in style but still balanced. 11,000 bottles produced.

I was really looking forward to the 2018 Norte, the top-of-the-range red from a north-facing plot in Laguardia at some 720 meters in altitude, from a vintage with similarities to the 2016 I love. The wine has a rare combination of power and elegance, of ripeness and freshness that denotes a special place. Like the rest of reds, it fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel, with malolactic in those same containers followed by 12 months in French oak barrels (slightly less than in the past) and eight months in concrete. I caught this wine in a slightly awkward moment; the oak was quite noticeable and there was a bit of volatility. It was bottled later because of COVID-19, so it had been bottled a couple of weeks before I tasted it. In any case, San Pedro didn't use any new oak in this wine or, as a matter of fact, in any of the other wines, and the time in barrel was also shortened in this wine. The palate has the balance, the freshness and the depth to overcome this, and I'm sure this wine is going to bloom with a little more time in bottle. The wine is not a powerhouse; this is a more delicate year. With a couple of hours in the glass, the wine shows a lot more poise and harmony, which only reinforced my beliefs. 11,000 bottles produced. It will be released in April 2021. Every year this wine is released in April.

The first plot to be harvested in 2017 was the vineyard used for the 2017 Norte, as it ripened quite early, which is unusual, because it's the highest-altitude vineyard that is usually harvested last! It was bottled a little earlier. They used a little more new oak for the élevage, and there are some toasty aromas. It's a juicy and hedonistic red, and the early harvest made the alcohol level and other analytical data very similar to the 2016 I tasted next to it and also helped to balance the wine. It's still a baby, and the tannins are still quite noticeable. 11,000 bottles were filled in March 2019.

The 2016 Norte is named after the orientation of the plot of its Tempranillo grapes grow. I visited the vineyard, one of the higher-altitude vineyards in Rioja Alavesa, at around 720 meters above sea level, right next to the mountain. It's a wild and windy place where they suffer the attacks of wild boars and deer, a place where the vines are healthy and the grapes ripen quite a lot but keep very good acidity. It's a powerful wine, as this vintage saw perhaps some 30% new barrels for the élevage that lasted 14 months. It's a ripe and powerful, still marked by the oak, but the palate is not hard; the tannins are quite polished, and there's refreshing acidity that keeps it very balanced. This is a modern red Rioja with stuffing and balance to develop nicely in bottle. It opened up in the glass, developing some floral aromas and further complexity, showing more integrated. This was first bottled in 1999, the second vintage of the winery. 11,500 bottles were filled in September 2018.