Freixenet Ash Tree Estate Merlot Tempranillo 2014
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Freixenet (pronounced "fresh-eh-net"), best known for its "black bottle bubbly" Cordon Negro, is a family-owned company that grew from humble beginnings in rural Catalunya. The roots of Freixenet stretch back to 1861 and are embedded in the history of two longstanding winemaking families, the Ferrers and the Salas, whose expertise, determination and ingenuity intertwined to form the foundation of the company that today is the world leader in sparkling wines. The proof, as they say, is in the bottle: today, the most often popped corks in the world say "Freixenet."
Winemaker Josep Bujan is the Technical Director for the Freixenet winery since 1980, Bujan is responsible for developing and refining the technical procedures that have allowed methode champenoise production of Freixenet cavas to soar to over one million bottles per year. A frequent enological lector and leader in the community of vintners in Catalunya through his work with a great number of professional wine societies, Bujan is also known for his writing. With the formation of a magazine to the publication of his book on sensory analysis, Bujan has established himself as one of Spain's most active enologists.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.