2007 Remirez de Ganuza Rioja Reserva DOCa

Producer Notes

This is modern Riojan winemaking at its best. After years of buying and selling vineyards Fernando Remirez de Ganuza decided to keep some of the best plots for himself and build his own winery with state-of-the-art facilities. There’s a three-phase strict selection process, starting in the vineyard which includes separating the top part of the bunches (for traditional fermentation) from the lower parts (carbonic maceration for the young unoaked wine) to ferment separately. Whilst these “modernist” methods have been criticised by the more traditional winemakers of the region (super extraction and modern oak being equated with homogeneity) the hard work has paid off and the Gran Reserva 2004 achieved 100 Parker Points whilst the younger Reserva 2004 was close behind with 97 points. The Reserva is a blend of 85 percent Tempranillo and 10 percent Graciano, with some Viura and Malvasia and aged for 27 months in 85 percent new French oak, while the Gran Reserva contains no white grapes, and is aged for more than 45 months in new barriques. Assertive, concentrated wines, just as Fernando likes.