The underground cellars of Bodegas Ollauri, together with the three historic buildings above them, are the fabric heritage of 5 centuries of winemaking historical past. The symbolic side of this heritage is, nonetheless, all of the extra beneficial, carrying the narrative and spirit that has formed the soul of Rioja. Strolling via the kilometre-long galleries is a journey via time, with the partitions whispering the tales of all those that lived for these lands and vines. That is the distinctive house of Conde de los Andes, the place its wines – a contemporary reinterpretation of conventional Rioja – are cradled by lived historical past.
Above floor, the viticultural patrimony is equally beneficial. Conde de los Andes manages a singular assortment of plots alongside the banks of the Ebro and on the slopes of the Toloño mountains, throughout the municipalities of Briñas, Haro and Labastida. The corporate has sought the vineyards at larger altitude, surrounded by the hills’ rugged terrain, the place wider amplitude vary (hotter days and cooler nights) and supreme soil drainage, enable for an extended and extra balanced ripening.
The vineyards are tended to by native growers, whose lives are intertwined with these of the vines – a shared historical past of onerous work, of private narratives rooted within the panorama of Rioja. The oldest crops, aged greater than 100 years, have been among the many first to be planted following the phylloxera blight. The youngest sections have themselves a mean age of 40 years, already providing the depth and strong class which have grow to be the logos of Conde de los Andes’ wines.
The vineyard staff is nicely conscious of the privilege it’s to work with fruit from such beneficial vineyards and of their final accountability to intervene as little as attainable with the purity and focus of the fruit that arrives on the vineyard. Their work is, above all, to precise Rioja in its purest essence.
Javier Murúa and Raúl Igual
Duermevela – new venture, outdated roots
The brand new yr sees the launch of Duermevela, a venture lengthy within the making: wines that age for prolonged intervals, each in wooden and in bottle, bringing out the total complexity of fruit hailing from plots of outdated vines chosen for his or her longer vegetative cycles. The positive, conscious work within the cellar is seen merely as a guiding hand that steers the wine via time, letting its finely carved nature emerge from the facility of a singular uncooked materials. A product of cautious listening, of restful wait, of serene expressiveness.
The primary to be launched is Duermevela Blanco 2016, a single-varietal Viura, with depth, size, texture, breadth and poise in equal measures. At a current tasting in Madrid, award-winning sommelier Raúl Igual described it because the embodiment of ‘a fantastic wine – an age-worthy white that reveals the complexity of wooden nuances and positive growth, whereas retaining a tremendous freshness.’ Whereas it’s ingesting fantastically now, it has a protracted life forward of it and can unveil additional layers of complexity if allowed to relaxation longer.
Its crimson counterpart – Duermevela Tinto 2016 – might be launched in two years, permitting it to develop its full expressiveness and textural depth. That is the essence of Duermevela: permitting time to do its work, revealing the total complexity of every layer of aroma and every structural side.
Conde de los Andes Duermevela Blanco DOCa Rioja 2016
100% Viura from outdated vines, harvested by hand
Fermented and aged in French oak barrels, on the positive lees, with frequent bâtonnage.
Aged for 4 years in bottle previous to launch. 13.5% abv
Restricted version of 1004 bottles
€85 – accessible Spring 2023
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