We have championed the wines of the modest, artisanal estate Bodegas Hermanos Peciña for a number of years. Excitingly, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the bodega as it is now, and the estate’s first Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva wines – for the five years prior they only produced “Cosechero” wine – semi-carbonic, easy going simple vintage reds. To celebrate this 25-year milestone, they have kindly offered us a small parcel of Vendemmia Seleccionada Reserva Magnums from vintage 1997.
From the outset, Hermanos Peciña adopted a meticulous approach when it comes to producing quality base wines, limiting the need to rely purely on wood to iron out the wrinkles. Pedro Peciña (ex-vineyard manager for La Rioja Alta) and his team have since lent new credence to the term “modern traditionalist”; their wines offer the best of precise, modern viticulture and vinifications, married to a staunchly traditionalist long ageing process. It is this combination, they say, which produces wines which mature in an upright fashion, satisfying as they do the desire for power, complexity and enjoyment, in equal measure, with a clear Riojan “into the woods” quality of brushwood, stones and spice.
Read MoreThis 1997 Reserva was bottled after three years in American oak casks, during which time it was racked six times using the traditional gravity decantation method, known as “cask to cask” to ensure a natural sedimentation of lees without the need for fining or filtration.
These mature magnums are offered as a one-off directly from the bodega’s library.