Valenciso Rioja Reserva 2014

Valenciso's Reserva is the estate's flagship, a Tempranillo drawn from eighteen old-vine plots on the clay and limestone soils around Haro.

The parcels lie in Villalba, Rodezno, Briones and Ollauri, in what Alberto Gil and Antonio Remesal Villar have proposed calling the Western Sonsierra zone in their book Rioja: Vinos Silenciosos. Ollauri's vineyards are noted for excellent calcareous soils, altitudes reaching 600 metres and a clear Atlantic influence. Every vine is managed organically and cropped well below the regional limits, and the youngest vines that make the grade here are sixty years old. The Reserva ferments naturally in cement vats and is then aged nineteen months in mostly low-toast Radoux French oak barriques, roughly twenty per cent of them new, with a tenth of the wine raised in recent years in low-toast Caucasus oak to lighten the wood influence further. After barrel the wine returns to concrete to settle for another twenty-four months; it clarifies so well there that Luis and Carmen see no need to fine or filter before bottling.

Ready on release but capable of fifteen years. Serve with roast lamb, grilled beef or a mature hard cheese at 16-18°C.

*Every effort is made to ensure the current vintage is accurate; however, variations can occur. If you are after a specific vintage, please contact us prior to ordering.