Winemaker Notes
Sourced from San Ginés, Diego’s very first parcel in Laguardia, this 0.97-hectare vineyard was planted partly around 1900 and partly around 1940 with spectacular varietal diversity, roughly 85% Tempranillo (four different clones), with the remainder planted to Graciano, Mazuelo, Garnacha, Viura, Malvasía Riojana, Calagraño, and Juan García. Destemmed and fermented in open-top neutral foudre and raised for 12 months in two neutral 500L French barrels.
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.