2018 Vizcarra "Torralvo" Ribera Del Duero, Spain

ABOUT THIS WINE

Hand-harvested and destemmed before fermentation. 25 days maceration with pumping over three times per day. Fermented in new French oak. Aged 17-18 months in French oak.

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, Torralvo 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. Torralvo is the only single vineyard wine that Juan Carlos makes, from one of the highest-altitude parcels on his estate. Planted in the early 1960s, Torralvo is a traditional head-pruned parcel of 100% Tempranillo, farmed organically. Fermented with indigenous yeasts, Torralvo offers a truly unique expression of place for Juan Carlos. In this bottling, he offers a wine to age, one that will improve with a decade or more in the bottle.