Valenciso Rioja Reserva 2011
$58.99
6 PACK BUY
Out of stock
Description
“If you asked me to name just one producer from Rioja that you should buy, it would be Valenciso … A small treasure in the great sea of Rioja.” Jesús Barquin one of the most influential wine critics in Spain who co authored the Spanish wine bible The Finest Wines of Rioja and Northwest Spain.
This tiny Domaine, run by Luis Valentin (Valen) and his partner Carmen Enciso (…ciso) make one, single red, a Rioja Reserva from old vine Tempranillo grown in the Rioja Alta from mature, low yielding vineyards and aged exclusively in French oak. Valenciso is all about aromatics in the manner of French Burgundy and the greatest Riojas of the past. The wine is much sought after by the top restaurants in Spain El Bulli no less and across the world. This Fine Rioja is refined, multi layered and complex.. extraordinary for quality and price.
As always, this is handpicked Tempranillo from the clay/limestone soils around Haro. The grapes come from 11 plots, including Villalba, Rodezno, Briones and Ollauri, all managed under strict culture raisonnée guidelines and cropped at well below the regional guidelines (of 38-hectolitres per hectare). Valenciso ferment in cement vats with native yeasts and the wine is then aged for 16 months in, mostly, low-toast French oak barriques. Although many ‘traditional’ Riojas are aged in US oak, you might be surprised to hear that French oak has a much longer history in the region. Records show that French and Bosnian oak were the norm before WWI. The hardship that followed saw the adoption of the cheaper and more plentiful American equivalent. When you taste a wine like this it is easy to see what was lost with this change. This is also the first vintage with 10% low-toast Caucasus oak (also used to age the estate’s wine and Laderas de Cabama), which Valenciso like for its fine grain. Following its stay in barrel, this wine is transferred back to concrete vats to settle for a further 12 months. Luis and Carmen find the wine clarifies so well in concrete that there is no need to fine or filter the wine before bottling.
92 points, Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate #232 “The elegant and balanced 2011 Reserva, cropped from a warm and dry year, was produced exclusively with Tempranillo grapes from the Haro region that were fermented uncrushed in concrete vats, including malolactic. The wine matured for 18 months in 90% French barriques and 10% oak barrels that, for the first time, were produced with oak from the Caucasus, which they like for its fine grain. There’s black rather than red fruit here and some notes of licorice and ink with a touch of leather, a quite powerful and ripe vintage for this bottling. It has abundant, fine-grained tannins and a long, dry finish. 104,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in the spring of 2015.”
RRP $69 *Our Special Six Pack Buy … Only $58.99 when you buy 6 of this wine*
Additional information
Producer | Valenciso |
---|---|
Region or Country | Rioja, Spain |
Variety | Tempranillo |
Vintage | 2011 |