Artuke’s entry-level village wine is composed of 95% Tempranillo and a touch of Viura for aromatic lift. It is a bright and aromatic wine that manages to cram a heap of flavour onto its medium-bodied frame. Redcurrant and plum jostle for position alongside cured meat and bay leaf, with a hint of wet earth and spicy oak in the background. At once both approachable and complex, it makes for delicious drinking.

Artuke is a rarity in Rioja: a small, terroir-focused winery. In a landscape dominated by wine factories producing huge quantities of anonymous wine, craftsmen (and brothers) Arturo and Kike de Miguel Blanco stand apart. Artuke only use grapes from their vineyards in and around the small town of Baños de Ebro, tucked under the Sierra Cantabria on the northern edges of Rioja. The Artuke aim is simple: to make vibrant wines expressive of the village, uncluttered by oak, extraction or other artifice. The brothers farm organically and their elevated, cool climate vineyards produce wonderfully bright versions of Rioja. The wines are both more-ish and complex, using the traditional oak ageing regimes but dialling it back for the sake of drinkability and freshness. Artuke is part of Rioja’n’Roll, a group of young producers who are committed to making singular wines which reflect their origins and terroir. Conscious of their heritage - they carried out a detailed study of the soils in their plots, located in Baños de Ebro, Ábalos, San Vicente de la Sonsierra and later in Samaniego - they fight to preserve it rather than transform it. That is one of the reasons behind their efforts to work the 25 hectares they own in the old way - bush vines with no wires or trellis... free, as nature intended!