Artadi Pagos Viejos 1999

Dense, saturated ruby with purple at the core. Dark cassis, black raspberry, bitter chocolate and raw licorice root, the fruit is primal and concentrated, drawn from old vines that clearly have something to say. But the wine is still finding itself: new oak sits firmly over the finish rather than folding into it, and the structure feels compressed and unresolved after recent bottling. The raw material is unquestionably there. Give it time and it should earn the score it's reaching for.