Crianza Tradition 2018

Bodega Valdrinal is the dream come true of David Cuéllar , scion of a long-time winemaking family and native of the Ribera del Duero region. Its 25 hectares of tempranillo vines are located at an altitude of 1000 meters, making it the highest estate in the entire region. The main goal has always been to produce high quality wines in small quantities. This situation gives the fruits a magnificent acidity, which finds its origin in the strong temperature contrasts. It is also the guarantee of slower maturation, which gives rise to wines of greater complexity and rich in nuances. With this vintage, David pays homage to his ancestors, winegrowers from father to son. The harvest is taken care of and sorted by hand to preserve the best grapes. After fermentation, the wine will be aged for 12 months in French oak barrels . The result is a structured wine with a spicy nose. It reveals notes of red fruits such as cherry , strawberry jam , redcurrants and even pomegranate . We then smell blackberry , blackcurrant , plum , oriental spices , tobacco and cocoa . On the palate it is tasty and expressive, achieving a balance between acidity, alcohol and ripe tannins.

The history of wine in Spain is so old that no one really knows who brought the first vines to the region. When the Phoenicians arrived some 3,000 years ago and founded the present-day cities of Cádiz and Jerez, viticulture was well established and Spanish wines were widely marketed throughout the Mediterranean and North Africa. You could say that Spain is a wine miracle. After years spent away from the world of fine wines, she is today a major player. Investment and ambition in the vineyards and cellars results in increasingly rich and complex (often very alcoholic) and spicy reds which are increasingly appreciated by international consumers. Proud to have more land devoted to vines than any other country, Spain is only beginning to capitalize on this resource consistently. Spain is an anarchic tangle of regions and sub-regions, just as its landscape is an anarchic tangle of incredibly raw landscapes. A glance at a map reveals the climatic diversity among Spain's many wine regions, from the soggy green vineyards of Galicia on the northern Atlantic coast to the toasty vineyards of southeastern the Mediterranean. Spain's saving grace, in terms of viticulture, is the average altitude of its vineyards, above 600 meters. A large part of Spanish vineyards therefore manage to produce grapes of good color and acidity simply because night temperatures are relatively low and the grapes do not ripen until the end of a sufficiently long growing period. But there is real treasure to be found for those willing to dig and, now that a class of connoisseurs has developed in Spain, all manner of ambitious investors have done their part to change the image of Spanish wine . Today, a new generation of winemakers has quietly begun making spectacular wines and experimenting with grape varieties that would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Wine remains an important commodity and is an integral part of Spanish culture.