Winemaker Notes
The high-acid Graciano is the last one of their grapes to be harvested, in their vineyards around the village of Corella. Following a light maceration the wine ferments in steel. 25% of the wine is racked into French oak for malolactic, the rest happens in steel. The wines were blended and stayed 9 months on their lees in French barrels.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The varietal red 2019 Graciano was cropped from a very healthy vintage they consider exceptional, when they could bottle this wine of grapes from the village of Corella at 13.3% alcohol with a pH of 3.4, so with measured ripeness and very good health. It fermented in 10,000-liter vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used French oak barrels of different sizes for nine months. It's herbal and vibrant, with pungent aromas of bay leaf, spicy and very tasty. This strain of Graciano seems to deliver less color and body, and the wine shows it. This is medium-bodied and has very fine tannins, pungent acidity and a long and tasty finish. The herbs turning more into flowers with time in the glass... Another bargain.
Graciano has been best known as a blending grape used in Rioja to add color, depth and perfume to Tempranillo. It also thrives in the nearby region of Navarra and a few dedicated winemakers in California and Australia are making singe varietal bottlings certainly worthy of checking out! Graciano’s black fruit and lush tannins make it a perfect pairing to grilled or smoked red meat, as well as game.
Just north of Spain’s famous Rioja region, Navarra excels in the production of full and fruit-dominant reds and good quality, dry rosés. Garnacha holds most of the land under vine, with Tempranillo coming in second place.