GRAPE: 100% Mazuelo

APPELLATION: Rioja DOCa

VINIFICATION: Picked manually in 11 kg. crates. Selection of clusters. Cold maceration for 2-4 days and fermentation for 10-12 days with daily treading and hardly any pumping over. Malolactic fermentation and ageing for 8 months in unlined earthenware amphorae.

TASTING NOTES: Fruit aromas (black plum and redcurrant) , over a slightly earthy base from the amphora.

The wines aged in amphora are the purest expression of a variety of grapes. In this case, the mazuelo, is part of the history of Rioja wines, to which it brings freshness and longevity.  Solomazuelo seeks to show the benefits of this variety in the climate and soils of the Sierra de Yerga and in this way, give it the importance it has.

FOOD PAIRING: Red meats, game, stews, spoon dishes. Ideal for some lamb chops to the vine.

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».