£23.00
Bodega Akutain is a 6.5ha family estate set up by Jon Peñagaricano’s father 40 years ago, 5km west of Haro’s epicentre. Here they spare no effort to produce wines that accurately reflect the wind-swept limestone clay higher hills of Rioja Alta (all their vineyards are in this zone) and are in the process of converting to organic viticulture.
Back in the cave they age their wine for longer than the minimum periods prescribed by the DO, using high quality older oak, rack every six months by decanting the contents of every individual barrel out and then back into the same barrel, and bottle unfiltered. Each of their wines is very distinct, but it’s great to taste Rioja with a clear terroir print, and a refreshing salinity on the finish that you’d expect to find from wines grown on calcareous soils.
This is a blend from the four parcels of vines worked by Akutain, vinified in tank then transferred into 45% new to 6yo, and 55% 7yo and much older oak barrels which as per a long Rioja tradition come 75% from the Appalachian region of USA, with the balance from France. Aged for 20 months in barrel (six months longer than the minimum 14 months prescribed) and racked barrel by barrel twice a year it was bottled without filtration, and then aged for a further eight months in their deep under-vineyard cellar. As you’d expect this is more of a traditional Rioja, with a mix of plum and prune fruit and herbal touch with the wine's vanilla aromas soon evolving and melding into its savoury backdrop. Once again, the finish is clean and saline due to the calcareous soil. Benefits from carafeing or opening an hour before serving. For drinking now to 2024.
93% Tempranillo, 5% Garnacha, 2% Viura