GRAPE: 50% tempranillo, 30% mazuelo y 20% garnacha

APPELLATION: Rioja DOCa

VINIFICATION:  Sustainable farming. Hand harvested in 11kg baskets. Destemmed and pickled with fermentation spontaneous, without resorting to selected yeasts. Fermentation separately from varieties and pre-malolactic assembly. 12 months, 30% in Slavonian oak barrels and 70% in a concrete tank.

TASTING NOTES: Purple red with medium intensity. Predominance of red and black fruit aromas, with some floral notes and light spicy nuances. Medium body, firm and elegant tannins and fresh and long final.

FOOD PAIRING: Red meats, game, stews, spoon dishes. Ideal for ribs or suckling pig.

PRODUCER:

After studying viticulture and oenology at the University of La Rioja and making several trips to national and international wine areas, in 2009, Javier Arizcuren  began to make a small amount of wine in the basement of the family house.

In 2016 Javier designed his “garage” cellar, an urban space converted into a place for winemaking and aging. The whole process is carried out by hand in a series of multi-purpose rooms.

With 19 hectares of vineyard, he only sells about 12,500 bottles. He seeks to reach 25,000, but «without subtracting time from work in the field», which, he says, represents 95 percent. «Because if you work well the land and the vineyard, little hand you have to put in cellar“.

Lacking innovative technologies («only mud jars can be considered innovation»), Arizcuren works in ecological, both, land and in cellar, with a minimal intervention «to get the purest expression of what comes from the field».