100% Garnacha.
896 bottles.
Manual grape harvest of each grape variety in small ten-kilogram tubs. Cooling in cold room until the temperature of the grapes goes down to 3 °C. Double selection of clusters and grains, with mild destemming and crushing. Individual vinification of grapes from La Ladera de Zorraquín and El Recuenco. Gravity-fed into French oak vats with no pumping. Cold macerated and fermented for 19 days with native yeast strains. Gravity racked to new and second-year French 500-litre oak barrels before malolactic fermentation.
18-month stay in barrels from different cooperages without racking. The wine remains over lees until bottled, with periodic bâtonnages during the first four months. The wine is bottled without filtering or fining, so a small amount of natural precipitate may appear over time.
Our bottle is inspired in an original eighteenth-century bottle that is on exhibit at the Vivanco Museum of the Culture of Wine.
Very intense garnet-cherry red. Powerful, complex aroma, with abundant ripe red and dark fruit, and well-integrated find wood. There are also elegant mineral notes, spices, toffee and liquorice. Very expressive in the mouth, with a silky, fresh, tasty, intense mouthfeel, leaving a long aftertaste, complex and elegant.
All kinds of char-grilled red meat, foie gras, casseroles and game dishes.
The year was marked by a concentration of rainfall during the winter months. From November to January, there was a an aggregate rainfall of 250 l/m2 (total 500 l/m2 for the vintage). Average temperature was similar to that of the previous vintage —12 °C, compared to 12.1 °C in 2009. Low temperatures during the months of June, July, August and September, with averages staying below 20 °C in some cases, gave the vintage and even more Atlantic character.
Canopy work allowed us to have better control over vine vigour. Weather conditions made tipping unnecessary and only a light leaf plucking operation was carried out on the north side. The harvest period was extended in view of mild temperatures and all grape varieties were picked later than the previous year except Graciano. The Tempranillo harvest started on 27 October, Graciano on the 29th, and Garnacha and Mazuelo on the 30th.