Bodegas Cornelio Dinastía, Imperial Autor, Rioja 2018 (14%)

The aesthetic evolution over the past few years in Spain’s greatest wine region leaves its winemakers with more style alternatives than ever before – and fortunate drinkers with a range of different translations of these propitious soils and skies. The Rioja that won its way through to Best in Show this year is perhaps best described as a ‘new classic’ – deeper and more primary in colour, scent and expressive force than the limpid, time-burnished classics of the past, yet at the same time packed with the classic Rioja virtues of gentle, brimmingly ripe fruits, warmth, glowing richness, supple tannins and understated but guiding acidity. It’s absolutely accessible now, but a few years will help ease the force of the fruits to the benefit of further gentleness and a still warmer glow.

‘My grandparents on both sides were winemakers and I saw them bartering their wine for potatoes in the province of Cuenca,’ remembers José María Sánchez, owner and CEO of Cornelio Dinastía.

Sánchez would go on to enjoy a successful career away from wine, but a few nibbles at the cherry whetted his appetite for more: ‘When I moved to Rioja I became a shareholder of a well-known winery,’ he explains. ‘Some years later I became the founding partner of another winery, and then a shareholder in yet another.

‘I then realised that, as a partner, you don’t have much decision-making power, so I started looking for wineries with their own vineyards.’

This search led Sánchez to Cornelio Dinastía and its old vineyards on the so-called golden mile between San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Briones and San Asensio. ‘Imperial Autor comes from our La Rad vineyard at the foot of the Sierra Cantabria. These are 50-year-old bush vines and everything is picked by hand.’

Made from 100% Tempranillo, it underwent malolactic fermentation in new American oak before being aged for 14 months, again in new American oak, and then in bottle for more than a year. About 2,700 bottles were made in 2018.