Winemaker Notes
Traditional dry-farmed manual viticulture, without the use of systemic herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, or fertilizers. Vines cultivated primarily “en vaso” or goblet style head trained vines. The grapes are fully destemmed following a rigorous sorting process. The different varieties ferment spontaneously separately in stainless steel tanks. The blend is assembled and the wine is racked to French oak barrique where the wine undergoes spontaneous malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged in fine grain French oak barrique for 18 months followed by6 months in concrete vat before bottling.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A nose of black currant and caramel prepares the palate for flavors of black cherry, raspberry, cocoa powder, licorice and violet. Satin tannins and a light note of mint stroll off into a pleasing finish.
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James Suckling
A rich, dense yet tangy Rioja with spiced cherries, chocolate and a cedary undertone. Concentrated and full-bodied on the palate framed by compact, firm tannins that extend to a long, lightly chewy finish.
Viñas del Lentisco – Villota is a project owned, operated, and founded by Carmen Pérez-Garrigues and her father Ricardo Pérez-Villota, the fourth and third generations respectively of the Pérez-Villota family, a line of growers and vigneron that have been rooted to the San Rafael estate in Laserna, Laguardia, Rioja Alavesa on a meander of the Ebro Rivera since 1930. While their current bodega was founded in 2013, the Villota-Pérez family are one of the most important families in the 20th century history of Rioja.
In 1930, Ricardo Pérez-Pérez, native of Rioja, settled on the San Rafael estate in Laserna. At the time, the 160 Ha. estate was planted to vitis vinifera but was in considerable disrepair. It was Ricardo’s son, Ricardo Pérez-Calvet, an agricultural engineer by trade, who began recovery and resuscitation of the vineyard, and began producing wine for his own personal consumption. The family soon began selling grapes to local producers and quickly became one of the most important qualitative suppliers for Viña Real, CVNE’s Rioja Alavesa property.
In 1973, the Villota family cofounded Viñedos del Contino, Rioja's first single estate winery with José Ángel Madrazo and CVNE. The partnership remained for 40 years, until in 2013, the Pérez-Villota family left the partnership. The family’s inspiration is to continue their trajectory as vigneron and to continue and improve the tradition of vinification of honest and transparent wines that communicate the history of one of Rioja’s most historic and important vineyard estates.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.