Finca Antigua Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
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Aged sheep and goats milk cheeses are two great cheese pairings for this wine. It is a good accompaniment to red meats and lamb. Ideal for big game dishes such as venison, chamois or casseroled wild boar. It enhances the Madrid one-pot pulse and meat dishes
Finca Antigua was established in 2003 by brother-and-sister team Carlos and Pilar Martínez-Bujanda Irribarria, whose family has been making wine since 1889. The vision of Finca Antigua is to create a facility that balances wine styles with the latest technologies, while always respecting the family’s enduring, time-honored winemaking traditions. At sharp contrast with the fresh, bucolic landscape, stands a structure of steel, stone and cement housing the equipment used to transform Finca Antigua harvests into spectacular wines. The estate is located on a prime parcel of land between the provinces of Cuenca and Toledo in DO La Mancha. The high altitude, soil of loam and limestone, and climate fluctuations from hot days to cool nights endow the vineyard with optimal growing conditions. A number of indigenous and international varieties thrive in the soil, the majority being Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo; but Syrah, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay, Graciano, Viura, Gewurztraminer, and Moscatel are also grown. The vineyards are marked by a multitude of old vines for which the property is named. All Finca Antigua wines are estate-grown and bottled. Although the 21st century has brought modernization and automation to the winemaking process, the mission of the Familia Martínez-Bujanda has always remained true to the original intent of Joaquín Martínez-Bujanda from over a century ago: Control of the vineyards is essential to making complex wines. Each generation has sought to best utilize each location, taking into account the altitude, microclimate, soil and characteristics unique to each terroir, to create wines that capture its essence. They continue to nourish the vineyards with organic matter and employ modern and traditional winemaking techniques to produce the best-quality wine possible from each parcel.
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.