2019 Vizcarra Garnacha, Ribera del Duero, Spain

ABOUT THIS WINE

100% Garnacha. Vines planted in 2000. Garnacha plantings represent less than 2% of all vines in Ribera del Duero, so this monovarietal expression is unprecedented for the area, and speaks to Vizcarra’s commitment to elevating the conversation about this iconic region’s continued potential. His insistence on gravity-fed winemaking lets the limestone terroir shine through, making for an elegant and pure Garnacha despite the extreme climate of Ribera del Duero. Gravity is a critical component in Juan Carlos's winemaking. The philosophy is always bent toward elegance and gentle extraction. Fermentation takes place in concrete tanks and malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel. The wine is aged for 14 months in 400L used French and American oak barrel. The lush red fruit and spice notes of Vizcarra Garnacha are an excellent match with grilled meats of all kinds. Pork secreto, lamb chops with rosemary and garlic, or a rotisserie leg of lamb would all be wonderful pairs.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Juan Carlos Vizcarra is a man of intensity, passion, and incredible ambition. Though his family has grown grapes in northern DO Ribera del Duero for more than four generations, he was the first to make estate-bottled wine from this fruit starting in 1991. The story goes that when he was a boy, he noticed that the historic estates of Vega Sicilia and Pesquera would come to his family in bad vintages to buy fruit. Realizing that his family must have truly special vineyards of the highest quality, Juan Carlos took it upon himself to begin producing wines to express this blessed terroir and heritage. Like all the wines at the tiny Bodegas Vizcarra, the flagship JC Vizcarra is made using gravity-fed winemaking to preserve the freshness and elegance intrinsic to the limestone plots found in northern Burgos. Meticulous in everything he does, Juan Carlos applies his detail-oriented approach to every facet of the winemaking process. With painstaking attention paid to every detail from vineyard to bottle in the 10 parcels farmed for JC, Juan Carlos is able to express the elegance and freshness intrinsic to this special land he farms by hand, without the use of chemicals. In the JC bottling, he offers a wine to age, one that will improve with a decade or more in the bottle. He avoids unnecessary over-extraction and heavy oak, preferring instead to let the natural power of Tinto Fino (known elsewhere as Tempranillo) speak for itself. The finesse and power that results is classic Ribera