El Capricho Aguara Tannat Special Reserve 2020

Aguará is El Capricho’s flagship Tannat, made only in the winery’s best vintages from a specially selected, low-yielding parcel in Villa del Carmen, Durazno. The 2020 vintage was particularly notable in Uruguay, with intense heat and low rainfall bringing the grapes to maturity earlier than usual and producing fruit with excellent concentration. El Capricho’s seven hectares sit on highly permeable soils containing fine sand and calcareous Cretaceous rock, while the bright, warm conditions of Durazno allow Tannat to achieve full phenolic ripeness. This is a wine built around concentration and longevity, with only 5,000 kg per hectare harvested from the selected parcel. The vineyard is farmed sustainably, with El Capricho’s grapes officially certified under Uruguay’s sustainability programme from 2023.

Made from 100% Tannat, the grapes are hand harvested and carefully selected before fermentation at 25°C, followed by 20 days of post-fermentation maceration, including malolactic fermentation. The wine then spends 18 months in new French oak before a minimum of 15 months in bottle. Now drinking with the benefit of six years' development, the intense blackberry, black cherry and cassis of the young wine have taken on greater savoury complexity, with cedar, vanilla, cacao, liquorice, graphite and dried herbal notes emerging alongside fine-grained, supple tannins. The 2020's concentration gives the wine plenty of depth, but time in bottle has brought greater integration and balance, making it particularly enjoyable now with grilled or slow-cooked beef, lamb, venison, mature cheeses and rich winter dishes.