Matsu El Recio

Description

Matsu El Recio is a Spanish dry red from Toro, made entirely from old-vine Tinta de Toro. The name means «the tough one», and the label carries a portrait of a middle-aged winegrower, a figure of maturity and experience. The wine spends around 14 months in oak. The bouquet is complex and many-sided: ripe black fruit — blackcurrant, blackberry and prune — leads, joined by black pepper, liquorice, tobacco leaf, cocoa and light vanilla. The palate is broad and powerful yet velvety and rounded, with ripe tannins, fine structure and a very long, warming finish of spice and berries. Pairs with marbled beef steaks, rack of lamb, roast lamb with rosemary and garlic, with venison and wild boar, kebabs and meat off the coals, and with aged jamón and pâtés. For cheese, choose aged Manchego, Parmesan or Pecorino. Serve at 16–18 °C, decanting 30–45 minutes beforehand.