Matsu El Viejo

Description

Matsu El Viejo is the summit of the Matsu range: a powerful, deep dry red from Toro in Spain. The name means «the old man», and the portrait on the label is the winery's founder. The wine is made entirely from Tinta de Toro off vines more than a hundred years old and spends 16 months in new French oak. The nose is intense and complex: ripe dark fruit — blackberry, blackcurrant, prune — interweaves with liquorice, black pepper, dark chocolate, espresso, tobacco leaf and fine nuances of vanilla and cedar. The palate is broad and powerful yet remarkably velvety and mature, with silky tannins, precise balance and a very long, warming finish of spice and berries. The wine calls for serious meat: marbled beef steaks, rack of lamb with rosemary, barbecue ribs, venison and wild boar, beef braised in wine or a steak Rossini. For cheese, choose aged Manchego, Parmesan or Pecorino. Serve at 16–18 °C, decanting at least an hour beforehand.