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 2019 Valtuille Cepas Centenarias comes from a single plot of ancient vines that could qualify as Vino de Paraje and in the future as Vino de Viña, but they are never going to do it because it’s their traditional name and label and one of the most consistent wines from the winery. It is made with field blend with lots of different grapes on clay and sand soils. It fermented with full clusters and indigenous yeasts with a long 60-day maceration and matured in 225- and 500-liter oak barrels (but, in the future, they might move to oval oak foudres) for one year. It has the violets and the perfume from the 2018 vintage but with more dimension, more layers and depth. A stellar performance in 2019 (again!). 3,500 bottles produced, what the plot delivered. It was bottled in June 2021.” 98 Luis Gutierrez
