RIOJA "El Puntido"

VARIETIES:

Tempranillo 100 %.

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ORIGIN OF THE GRAPES:

Vineyard: El Puntido, Páganos-Laguardia, Rioja Alavesa; Surface: 25 Has. (61.74 acres). Soils of franc-clay texture and calcareous-clay composition. Altitude: 1970 ft. Year of plantation: 1975. High density plantings on trellis: 3,367 vines per hectare, (1,364 per acre), 84,175 vines in total.
Organic fertilization every 2 years.
Date of harvest: Third week of October, 2003. Exhaustive hand selected and harvested in boxes of perfectly healthy, ripe grapes; further selection made in the winery using a sorting table. Yield: 28 Hls./ Ha.

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VINIFICATION:

Traditional elaboration, 100% destemmed.
Pre-fermentative maceration during 5 days at 6ºC (42.8º F) with very light pump-overs and a light aeration.
Alcoholic fermentation: between 8 to 10 days. Temperature controlled between 29 and 31º with 2 or 3 daily pump-overs during the first phase and a daily pump-over at the end.
Post-fermentative maceration: 3 weeks
Directly barreled in new French oak Bordelaise barrels where will take place the malolactic fermentation and where will stay on its fine lees during the first 4 months.
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AGING-STABILIZATION:

Barrel: 18 months in new Bordeaux barrels of French oak as of November 2003. Rackings every four months. Bottled: December 2005.

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VINTAGE:

For the first part of the 2003 vintage growth cycle, the weather was marked by rainfall, providing an appropriate amount of water in all phenological stages. An absence of spring’s frosts and a good, though somehow irregular, fertility provided medium cluster size. Summer beginning with some storms and very sunny favored a good healthy and vegetative development. High temperatures during the end of July and first half of August provoked water stress delaying the maturation. Intermittent rainfall in the end of the summer and moderate temperatures, favored an increase in the sugars levels and a delay in phenolic maturation. Harvest takes place in October and it is characterized by the selection of clusters with perfect healthy and ripeness levels and an increase in temperatures that carried out an increase in sugars and polyphenols.