Deep purple in colour, with aromas of plums and raspberries and just a hint of spice. On the palate, this is a full-bodied wine, with mature tannins complementing the dark juicy fruit and mineral notes. Striking and powerful.

Bodega Garzón is a family-owned winery in Maldonado on the Atlantic coast in southern Uruguay. They pioneered viticulture in this area over 10 years ago, and have since become the standard bearer for premium wines from Uruguay. In November 2018, their pioneering status was recognised by Wine Enthusiast with the ‘New World Winery of the Year’ award. The vineyards at Bodega Garzón are a patchwork quilt of 1,150 individual plots of around 0.2 hectares in size, each plot carefully chosen for a specific variety according to its soil and microclimate. The winery is specially designed to operate as sustainably as possible, and is the first winery outside North America to pursue LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Built on natural terraces, the winery uses cutting-edge technology and operates using a gravity system to ensure quality and energy efficiency at every stage of production.

Located 11 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, the estate has more than 1,000 small vineyard blocks covering hillside slopes, which benefit from varying microclimates, different levels of humidity and an intense canopy management. Well-draining granitic soils and cooling Atlantic breezes allow the grapes to ripen steadily. The vineyards are surrounded by lush forests, palm trees, rocky soils and granite boulders.

The harvest of 2020 was the best of recent years, due to regular temperatures seen throughout the winter and at the time of bud burst, which produced good clusters. During the summer, good diurnal ranges coupled with little rainfall enabled a perfect ripening of the grapes, which were able to achieve optimum sugar and polyphenol levels as well as a very good level of health in the vineyard. Thanks to the cool summer nights, the fruit was top quality and had well-balanced levels of acidity, resulting in a wine of great character and freshness.

The hand-harvested grapes were macerated on their skins for five days before fermentation in large 150-hectolitre cement tanks took place at 26-28ºC for one week, with twice daily pump overs. The wine was then aged on lees for 6-12 months in 50-hectolitre, untoasted French oak casks, and bottled in June 2021.