Description
Prior to producing the several single plot crus as they do now, this has long been considered the flagship of the winery, from two clay rich 100+ year old vine vineyards in Matalospardos that are consistently picked on the second day of each harvest. 100% whole cluster, macerated for some 60 days in large 5000L foudres, then moved to neutral barrel for the remainder of its élevage. As Bryce mentioned to me yesterday, since 2013 or so they have really honed in on refining the Cepas, giving it notably more finesse and precision in each passing vintage, vs the raw power of the vintages prior to that. Based on the details of Luis’ review, which happens to be the highest score of the entire range, sounds delightful to me. If you’re not convinced yet that these are worth exploring, nothing I can say will do so…..
“The floral 2018 Valtuille Cepas Centenarias is the next vintage after the 2015, as no 2016 or 2017 could be produced. This has a Northern Rhône nose that mixes violets and smoked meat, very showy. The palate is seamless and refined, with very fine, silky tannins. Like many of their wines, 2018 could very well be the finest vintage of this wine to date. This has much lower alcohol (13.2%) and more acidity. In 2018, they used all the white grapes from one of the plots, which could be a significant 6% of white grapes, and also some 5% Merenzao, so the wine is somewhat more fluid and nuanced. The two plots used for this wine are in the paraje of Matalospardos in Valtuille. This is the most complete and complex of the 2018s. 3,500 bottles and 36 magnums were filled in early May 2020.” 97+ Luis Gutierrez