The sample of the 2021 La Poza de Ballesteros finished fermentation and malolactic but was kept in barrel for a little longer because the 2020 had not yet been bottled and was in barrel for two or three months after finishing malolactic, which is when they find the oak marks the wines. There are some 30% 500-liter barrels, which they are increasing in future years, to have all between 500- and 600-liter barrels; and they have managed to get some 630-liter oak barrels. This is usually the most approachable of the single-vineyard wines. This is a little marked by the oak, but it is round and juicy, open and expressive, with round tannins. It is pretty much in the style of the vineyard, generous but with good freshness and even some austerity. 2021 could be similar to 2015—clean and fruit-driven but with abundant tannins and quite structured. The wine grew as it sat in the glass, becoming more aromatic and perfumed...

The 2020 La Poza de Ballesteros is a powerful and ripe wine with 14.66% alcohol and ripe fruit, volume and round and dense tannins. It's from a 1.18-hectare plot of vines planted in 1960 on deep brown soils, and the exposition to the afternoon sun and the deeper soils gives the grapes more ripeness—and this wine is always a riper expression of Tempranillo. It's unctuous, with contained ripeness, fresher fruit and fine, slightly dusty tannins. It's balsamic, clean and fresh with some aniseed and fennel aromas and a silky, gentle palate, with less ripe sensations than in past vintages. 3,800 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2022 and in barrel until June 2021.

The 2019 La Poza de Ballesteros is a powerful and ripe wine with 14.66% alcohol and ripe fruit, volume and round and dense tannins. It's from a 1.18-hectare plot of vines planted in 1960 on deep brown soils, and the exposition to the afternoon sun and the deeper soils give the grapes more ripeness—and this wine is always a riper expression of Tempranillo. It has notes of black fruit and tobacco, and it's round and generous, more voluptuous, with round tannins and instant gratification. It's expressive and direct, quite gentle. 4,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2021.

I had not tasted the unbottled 2018 La Poza de Ballesteros, so I tasted it from bottle. The vineyard is 1.18 hectares that were planted in 1960 on brown clay and silt soils that are quite deep. It matured in barrique for nine months. This is particularly fine and elegant in 2018, it has contained ripeness, there is no excess ripeness or heat and it's cool and balanced. It has the roundness of the place and the edge of the vintage, coming through as elegant and balanced like I have never seen before in this wine. It's fresh, even minty; perhaps it doesn't have the depth and definition as the others where the finesse comes naturally, but this has to be the finest Poza I have tried. 3,000 bottles were filled in June 2020.

A wine I always find more powerful but somehow simpler, the 2017 La Poza de Ballesteros reveals concentration and ripeness, with round fruit, and perhaps with better freshness from the deeper soils here. It has an expansive palate, exuberant and showy. It's the one where the oak is still perceptible. 2,820 bottles produced. It was bottled in the summer of 2019.