Winemaker Notes
Venus is the yearly result of the winery's search for beauty. An attempt to understand the femininity, the land, through a bottle of wine: Carinyena and Garnatxa. Mystery and seduction, speech and wealth, peace, patience, balance and passion.
A juicy wine, mostly created to be paired with food, especially the Mediterranean traditional cuisine.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The red 2021 Venus la Universal has a bright ruby color and a floral, perfumed and elegant nose full of wild herbs. The 60% Cariñena and 40% Garnacha fermented with full clusters with a long maceration, four or five weeks, kept in the fermentation oak vat, with the next harvest moved to another vat and then to concrete, completing some 42 months of élevage. The long élevage seems to have given it great harmony and made it very stable and subtle, the result of a slow cooking, leaving the wine nuanced, complex and terribly elegant. It has a medium-bodied palate, with very fine, chalky tannins and an elegance, inner energy and light like I have not seen before. Very elegant and fine-boned, it has a moderate 12.5% alcohol. It should develop nicely in bottle.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A 60-40 Garnatxa-Carinyena blend of old-vine parcels, the 2021 Venus is more savory than fruity, spicy, peppery, and dusty, a very exciting wine. Black-fruited, the mouthfeel is generous and the wine full-bodied with power and concentration, but never heavy, showing balance and complexity in equal measure. Some whole-cluster fermentation adds to the verve of the wine and enduring freshness, before aging took place in neutral oak foudres and concrete. Drink now through 2036.
With hundreds of red grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended red wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged resulting in a wide variety of red wine styles. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a red wine blend variety that creates a fruity and full-bodied wine would do well combined with one that is naturally high in acidity and tannins. Sometimes small amounts of a particular variety are added to boost color or aromatics. Blending can take place before or after fermentation, with the latter, more popular option giving more control to the winemaker over the final qualities of the wine.
How to Serve Red Wine
A common piece of advice is to serve red wine at “room temperature,” but this suggestion is imprecise. After all, room temperature in January is likely to be quite different than in August, even considering the possible effect of central heating and air conditioning systems. The proper temperature to aim for is 55° F to 60° F for lighter-bodied reds and 60° F to 65° F for fuller-bodied wines.
How Long Does Red Wine Last?
Once opened and re-corked, a bottle stored in a cool, dark environment (like your fridge) will stay fresh and nicely drinkable for a day or two. There are products available that can extend that period by a couple of days. As for unopened bottles, optimal storage means keeping them on their sides in a moderately humid environment at about 57° F. Red wines stored in this manner will stay good – and possibly improve – for anywhere from one year to multiple decades. Assessing how long to hold on to a bottle is a complicated science. If you are planning long-term storage of your reds, seek the advice of a wine professional.
