Cuentavinas Los Yelsones Rioja 2019
Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesThe pricey 2019 Los Yelsones is truly impressive, aromatic, nuanced, powerful and elegant, with power and finesse and some oak still to be integrated on the palate. It's pure Tempranillo from a plot planted in 1970 in La Rad in the fourth valley of San Vicente de la Sonsierra where the soils have big blocks of calcium carbonate (yelsones) that name the wine. This matured in 500-liter oak barrels for 18 months, but the oak feels more integrated than the initial 2018 that I tasted in my previous review of Rioja. It's a showy and impressive wine that should develop nicely in bottle. Best After 2023
Yelsones are blocks of calcium carbonate, part of the soil matrix at this parcel in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, the balance a mix of calcareous clay, glacial moraine and quartzite. The vines, planted in 1970, produce a gentle tempranillo, its power enhanced by its harmony, lasting on old-vine umami depths. There’s some stemmy greenness, a youthful character that suggests the wine will age well, probably for decades.
Cuentaviñas is the new personal project of Eduardo Eguren, the fifth generation of the Eguren family, an illustrious name in the world of wine. Eduardo spent his childhoods in vineyards with his grandfather Guillermo and his summers between barrels with his father, Marcos. Upon joining the family company, Eduardo was responsible for all hands-on technical aspects of winemaking at some of the family’s most prestigious projects: Sierra Cantabria, Vinedos de Paganos, and Teso la Monja, where Eduardo was head winemaker.
Having grown up immersed in the world of wine, Eduardo dreamed of creating a project of his own where he could tell the story of vineyards, cultivating the essence of the vines rather than simply making wine. When he inherited 3 vineyards from his grandfather, Edurado embarked on this project, in which he could put into practice everything he had seen and learned on his journey with great winemaking masters. His wife Carlota is his partner in the project, and their work as husband and wife very much embodies what many in the United States have come to know as the "new Spain."
The name Cuentaviñas is a play on words – cuentacuentos in Spanish translates to "story-teller" in English. At his new project, Eduardo’s philosophy is to work as a cuentaviñas or “vineyard-teller,” living and breathing each site and translating this expression into the bottle. He works as a consummate vigneron; acting as winemaker, vineyard manager, and marketer for his products. For now, the project is so small that pruning, leaf pulling, plowing by horse, selecting cover crops, and digging soil pits are all carried out by Eduardo himself..Who better to tell the story of these spectacular microparcels than a man who grew up on the streets of San Vicente de la Sonsierra, living and breathing the revival of quality winemaking in this historical medieval Rioja village.
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.