Tempranillo, Graciano

Food pairings: Traditional meat stews, game, or cured sheep's milk cheese.

Winemaking: Whole clusters were fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts. The wine then aged 12 months in 500-litre French oak barrels followed by 7 months in large oak foudres, and was bottled in November 2023.

Vineyards and terroir: Phinca Hapa comes from a single vineyard planted in 1967 at about 640 metres in Elvillar, in Rioja Alavesa, on limestone soils. The vineyard is farmed biodynamically and worked with horses.

Family and history: Bodegas Bhilar is the family winery of David Sampedro and Melanie Hickman in Elvillar, at the foot of the Sierra de Cantabria.

In the pictures: A plough horse in the vineyards above the village of Elvillar; a Bhilar vineyard; and a horse ploughing between the vines. The first two photographs are courtesy of Bodegas Bhilar; the third is courtesy of Regal Wine Co.