The just-bottled pale rosé 2021 Primer Rosé, a wine first produced in 2015 exclusively with Mazuelo (Cari?ana) grapes, achieved 14% alcohol in this year of slow ripening of the grapes. This comes from the same vineyard selected for the top red Castillo Ygay, from grapes that were picked on October 12, macerated for a few hours and bled into concrete tanks where it fermented at 10 degrees Celsius without going through malolactic to keep the freshness and a pH of 3.4. It was kept in concrete with the fine lees for five months. It has a subtle nose with aromas of talcum powder and rose petals, and it's delicate and elegant, with some herbal undertones. The wine is fresh and clean, shows youth and finishes tasty and dry. The wine changed in 2019, when they first produced it in concrete. 14,881 bottles were filled in March 2022. This will always be a small production, as it's the bleeding from the Castillo de Ygay red...

I tasted two vintages of the rosé, starting with the older 2020 Primer Rosé, which is delicate and pale at 13.5% alcohol and with good freshness and a pH of 3.4. The grapes were picked on October 1, almost two weeks earlier than in 2021. This has a more Mediterranean profile with Mediterranean herbs and hints of esparto grass, all in a subtle way. It's medium-bodied and has some pungent flavors. 6,941 bottles were filled in March 2021 after the wine rested with the fine lees in concrete for a period of five months.

The 2019 Primer Rosé was produced exclusively with Mazuelo (a.k.a. Cari?ena) grapes, following the model of the very pale Provence rosés by fermenting the juice in concrete (for the first time) after a very short maceration (a few hours) and keeping it in concrete with lees for six months before bottling. It has moderate alcohol, good freshness and three grams of residual sugar. Their challenge was to achieve the color they wanted and to have a color that is stable over time. They now think they have achieved it, and now that they have the know-how, they might start considering producing oak-aged rosés like in the past... (fingers crossed!). They are extremely happy with the 2019 as such; it's pretty defined and clean, and they think it has improved with the fermentation in concrete rather than in stainless steel. This has the austere character of Mazuelo; the wine is a lot more serious than the image might suggest. It's delicate and there's clarity and precision. The palate shows chalky minerality and a tasty, almost salty finish. 4,259 bottles were filled in April 2020.

The only rosé produced nowadays, the 2018 Primer Rosé is a young and pale Proven?al style, and quite unusually, it's produced with Mazuelo grapes, the local name of Cari?ena. The juice fermented without skins in a concrete vat, and the wine didn't go through malolactic fermentation and was kept with the lees for some 40 days. 2018 is a completely different year from 2017; it's a much fresher year, but they harvested early (as always) to get a vibrant wine with great harmony. The wine is very perfumed and floral. It's clean, fresh and tasty, with depth and a sense of harmony that I didn't get in previous versions; surely the best of these new rosé wines. 6,625 bottles were filled in April 2019.

Exceptionally, I had two vintages of the rosé to taste and check the evolution in bottle. The 2017 Primer Rosé comes from a warm and dry year, and the harvest was the earliest on record in recent years. It's a great effort in a warm year like 2017, where the key is to keep the freshness in the wines, especially in this one. It has already mellowed out in bottle and feels velvety and round but with varietal character, and it's floral rather than fruit-driven, keeping its lightness and evolving nicely in bottle. It has some added complexity from the time it has been in bottle, with a mineral/diesel-like twist. They tried other grapes but decided Mazuelo was the right grape to create this style of rosé. 5,200 bottles were filled in March 2018.