Peña El Gato 2020

Peña El Gato provient d’un ancien vignoble familial situé à Baños de Río Tobía, en Rioja Alta, au cœur de la vallée du Najerilla. Les ceps, conduits en gobelet et cultivés en agriculture biologique, occupent un coteau exposé plein sud, dessiné comme un amphithéâtre, à 650 mètres d’altitude. Le sol, pauvre et peu profond, associe argiles et calcaire, limitant naturellement les rendements et concentrant les raisins. Dans cette partie fraîche de la Rioja, sous influence atlantique, les hivers froids, les étés tempérés et les fortes amplitudes thermiques favorisent une maturation lente et préservent l’expression aromatique du fruit.

Les raisins sont vendangés manuellement en caissettes de 15 kg, puis égrappés. Ils sont encuvés directement dans des fûts de chêne français de Tronçais de 500 litres, où se déroulent la fermentation alcoolique et l’élevage. Le vin séjourne 11 mois dans ces mêmes contenants. Il ne réalise pas la fermentation malolactique complète, un choix qui participe au maintien de sa fraîcheur et de sa tension. Les rendements sont très faibles, autour de 2 500 kg par hectare.

Ce vin dévoile des notes de fraise, de framboise, de cerise mûre et de fruits noirs, complétées par des nuances de violette, de fleurs séchées, de fumée, de vanille, de tabac, de poivre et d’herbes séchées. La bouche offre une matière structurée et complexe, portée par des tanins soyeux, une acidité équilibrée et une finale longue, fraîche et persistante.

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.