Bodegas Sierra Cantabria Rioja Crianza 2020
(Rioja, Spain) - [WM 93] [WA 90+] [WS 90]

About the Winery:

Founded by Guillermo Eguren, who is a self-made "bodeguero", coming from a family tradition of vine growers. Today, the fourth generation of the Eguren family, Marcos Eguren, is the winemaker and director of the winery. Sierra Cantabria has come to the forefront of Spanish wineries, located in the best terrain of Rioja, the savoir-faire of Marcos Eguren, and his price-conscious policies. 

About the Wine:

Sierra Cantabria Crianza is the flagship age-classified Rioja bottling produced by the Eguren family of San Vicente de la Sonsierra. While the family is most well known for their single cru classified bottlings, they produce outstanding ageing classified wines from their estate vineyards in San Vicente. While this category is dominated by blends of purchased fruit sourced from many growers across the entire appellation, the Eguren family are one of the few (if not the only) families in Rioja that produce an estate grown and bottled Crianza from a single village - in this case, San Vicente de la Sonsierra,
one of the most respected villages for Tempranillo in Spain.

Vineyards are located in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, one of the most famous towns in Rioja, known for the quality of its grapes. The grapes are sourced on 267 acres (108 ha), from 1,440-1,740 ft. above sea level (480-580 m), spread among the towns of San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Labastida, and Laguardia.

100% Tempranillo 

Viticulture: Practicing organic dry farmed viticulture with certain selective biodynamic
practices. Vineyards trained as spur-pruned goblet vines as well as high density trellises. Manual work and harvest, with no mechanization whatsoever.

Winemaking: The grapes undergo rigorous double-manual sorting, both before and after destemming. 100% of the clusters are destemmed, but not crushed. Temperature controlled fermentation in stainless steel (inoculated) with indigenous yeast that have been selected from their vineyard and cellar. Maceration lasts 20-30 days. Malolactic fermentation in barrel.

Ageing: 14 months in used French & American oak barrels. Racked every four months. Aging is carried out in subterranean cellars that were carved by the family at the end of the 1990's. Due to the low temperatures and high humidity, the rate of oxidation is reduced allowing the family to work with low levels of SO2.