Viñedos del Contino & Guillaume Thienpont, Chorus 2024

Chorus is something rather exciting: a meeting of two worlds, with Contino's old Rioja Alavesa vineyards as the stage and Guillaume Thienpont (the man behind Vieux Château Certan) lending his Bordeaux-trained eye to the blend. Contino has long been one of Rioja's most compelling single-estate producers, working from a 62-hectare finca on the Ebro that gives them a rare level of control from vine to bottle. The result here is a wine that thinks like Rioja but carries itself with unusual composure; structured, precise, with the kind of inner tension that makes you reach for the glass again. It's Tempranillo-led with Graciano and Mazuelo in support, and the Thienpont influence shows in the seamlessness of the oak integration and the careful attention to aromatic lift. At two years old it's already open and generous, but there's real architecture here too.