El Carretil 2021

A dry Tempranillo built on finesse rather than power. At Artadi, Juan Carlos López de Lacalle has chosen the path of low extraction: French rather than American oak, structure without oak dominance. That this wine carries the name of its plot rather than an ageing category is a statement in itself.

El Carretil is one of the nine single vineyards that Juan Carlos López de Lacalle farms with his children Carlos and Patricia, totalling 56 hectares in Rioja Alavesa. The Sierra Cantabria shelters the vineyards, the soils are limestone-rich and clayey, the nights cool. The wine is made in Laguardia, in the same cellar for forty years. At the end of 2015, Artadi left the DOCa Rioja, whose regulations even prohibited mentioning individual vineyards on the back label.

100% Tempranillo. The vines are farmed organically, without herbicides or synthetic chemicals, with soil work partly carried out using a horse. Fermentation takes place in open vats, extraction remains gentle, and ageing is in French barrels. No reverse osmosis, no micro-oxygenation, no overripeness.

Dark berries, fine spice and a cool mineral streak. The texture is silky, the tannin fine-grained, the acidity fresh. 14.5% Vol., dry.

A wine named after its plot, forgoing any ageing category. It ages over decades without being closed in its youth.