La Vitoriana, La Vizcaina de Vinos, Bierzo, 2017
La Vitoriana is a wonderful vineyard located at 600m elevation facing north in Valtuille. Remarkably, the vines date back to 1881 and are still planted on original Pie Franco rootstocks thanks to the higher proportion of sand in the upper section of the vineyard. Aromatically open and suave, the 2017 leaps from the glass with soft strawberry, cherry and cassis notes. Silky, plummy flavours, soft velvety tannins and chocolatey notes emerge and produce and beautifully measured Bierzo with no hard edges and just a very fine acid thread. Immediately approachable. Fermented in large wooden vats on the skins for up to 90 days before maturation in neutral 500L casks and 225L barrique.
critic reviews
Shimmering violet. Intensely perfumed aromas of dark berries, cherry pit, incense, exotic spices and pungent flowers, along with a smoky mineral flourish that builds in the glass. Densely packed and chewy on the palate, showing excellent depth and bright mineral lift to the sappy black and blue fruit, spicecake and violet pastille flavors. Gains energy with air and finishes impressively long and juicy, polished tannins building slowly and harmonizing with the wine's mineral-tinged fruit.
The 2017 La Vizcaina La Vitoriana has depth and power, inherent to the vineyard, a cool site that behaves well in a warm year like 2017, but in 2017 I still prefer El Rapolao. The fruit is a little darker and riper without excess (it's all relative when you compare, and sometimes comparisons are tedious...), as the cooler exposition takes the warmer weather better. It's textured and serious. 6,300 bottles were filled, as the north-facing exposures like this escaped the frost of the 2017 spring. It as bottled in May 2019.