Cepa Gavilán 2001 Pérez Pascuas, Viña Pedrosa, Ribera del Duero

I did not go to Brazil at the end of last year expecting to discover an exciting new Spanish wine not yet available retail in the UK, but that is what happened.

Mistral Wines is an excellent wine importer based in São Paulo run by the Lilla family who are mad about wine even if their finances depend more obviously on a business manufacturing some fancy coffee-related machinery. The Lillas showed me a new red from the respected firm Hermanos Pérez Pascuas whose best-known wine is probably Viña Pedrosa (see a 2003 tasting notes article).

Cepa Gavilán 2001 effectively replaces the old Viña Pedrosa Joven which was made from their youngest Tempranillo vines, but these have now reached a sufficient age that their fruit is sold enough to be worth ageing in (a mix of French and American) oak barrels. Hence Cepa Gavil n gets 12 months in barrel while the Viña Pedrosa Crianza gets 18, and the Vi¤a Pedrosa Reserva, Viña Pedrosa Gran Reserva and their top wine Pérez Pascuas Gran Seleccion get at least 24. The new wine is selling for $25 in Brazil while the Crianza 1999 is more than $45. In the UK, Pérez Pascuas' importers Richards Walford of Rutland (tel 01780 460451) had not yet persuaded any retailer to stock it when I last asked them, but reckoned it would probably retail for about £10. I tell you all this just so that you can see where it fits in to the range.

What's so delicious about the wine is that it is, like all Pérez Pascuas wines to have come my way, thoroughly authentic but it is also immediately charming, being both rich yet very fresh and stimulating. The oaking has been done with admirable skill and lightness of touch. Cepa Gavilán, very far from the too-frequent rasping Ribera del Duero style, could be enjoyed any time over the next two or three years, I reckon.

The company is one of Ribera del Duero's older bodegas, even though founded as recently as 1980. They now have 120 hectares of vines, some of them half a century old, at their disposal, presumably making them the envy of the dozens of new investors in this highly fashionable region east of Valladolid. Gavilán, which is Spanish for sparrowhawk, was the name of one of their plots around Pedrosa de Duero.

For more about the producer visit www.perezpascuas.com.

download a list of their importers worldwide.