The cask sample of the 2021 El Carretil was a bit tight and a little tannic. This is from a vineyard that has compact silt soils and tends to suffer in warm and dry years, and it did suffer a little in 2021, a warm-ish year a little in the style of 2005 and 2015—years of powerful wines. It has abundant chalky tannins and an austere palate, but the nose surfaces after some time in the glass.

The 2020 El Carretil is fresh and fruit-driven with very fine, chalky tannins from the very high limestone and silt content in the soil, and it has the elegance of the sand component of the "salagón" soils. I found very good precision and elegance in this wine, from a vineyard that behaves well in less warm years and suffers in dry conditions. However, I found the wine to be spectacular, with balance and freshness, and it's very clean and fine-boned. It should develop nicely in bottle. 5,000 bottles were filled in June 2022.

The 2019 El Carretil was produced with Tempranillo from a plot of 3.64 hectares planted in the village of Laguardia at three different times—1930, 1975 and 1988—on limestone, sandstone and silt soils with up to 18% active limestone. It fermented in open-top oak vats and went through malolactic fermentation in barrel, where it was kept for nine months. It's mineral, it has energy and tension, it's not heavy, and it has freshness and acidity. It's serious and has very fine, abundant tannins and great balance that should make it age nicely in bottle. 5,000 bottles were filled in June 2021.

The bottled 2018 El Carretil was phenomenal. It comes from a plot of 3.64 hectares planted at three different times—1930, 1975 and 1988—on limestone, sandstone and silt soils with up to 18% active limestone. Its Tempranillo grapes aged in barrel and then were racked back to stainless steel, where it was left to mature until it was bottled. It's mineral and balsamic, expressive, open and fresh, with beautiful elegance. It's classical with even a Bordeaux twist. It shows pretty much like the sample I tasted 12 months ago, expressive and open, aromatic and perfumed, with great freshness and balance, vibrant and energetic, juicy with fine-grained tannins and with terrific balance and purity. 5,000 bottles were filled in June 2020.

The bottled 2017 El Carretil has 14.65% alcohol, which reflects its ripeness, but it's clearly the second wine in the quality hierarchy, second to El Pisón. These two wines have a perfume and seem to transcend the vintage with the finesse and length provided by the limestone-rich soils, which also give it a chalky texture in the palate. This is a great wine, with a fragrant nose of violets, blood oranges and red cherries that give it superb freshness. 4,025 bottles were filled in June 2019.