Akutain Crianza Rioja 2018

$55.00

Classic Rioja nose of cherry, cinnamon, raspberry, blackberry and clove. You can really taste the similarity with Bordeaux, with bright vivid fruit and claret like weight and texture. Medium to full bodied, with bright fruit and tertiary crianza notes of cake spice and a ferrous quality that has come as a pleasant surprise. Mouthwatering, mineral, long carry and finishes with an aniseed grip. Immensely satisfying and delicious. Waters Wine Co

 

Fermented in fiberglass vats with native yeasts, and then raised for 1 year and 9 months in used American oak barrels, with an additional year in the bottle before release – far exceeding the Rioja D.O.’s ageing requirements for Crianza wines. Importer’s notes.

 

What’s unusual is that they exclusively use grapes from their 6.4 hectares of vineyards, all within five kilometers from the winery in the villages of Villalba, Haro, Anguciana, Cihuri and Sajazarra in Rioja Alta. They don’t use herbicides but are not yet entirely organic. Each vineyard ferments and matures separately, and they follow a tradition they have learned from people such as Basilio Izquierdo and Ezequiel García (both ex-CVNE), racking the wines three or four times before they go into barrel (“to have them as clean as possible”). The aging is mostly in old American oak, with 20% to 30% in French oak, hand-racking the barrels one by one, like in the old times, and always keeping each vineyard separate. The wines keep the traditional hierarchy: Cosecha, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva; and they even have a Gran Reserva Rosé! These are textbook traditional savory Rioja wines destined for the table. Luis Gutiérrez

 

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SKU: AKU002-18 Categories: , , ,

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