Carra Sto Domingo 2018

Parker über: Carra Sto Domingo

-- Parker: The first vineyard they owned took time to recover and has finally produced a red 2018 Carra Sto Domingo, a very old plot planted by Eva Valgañón's grandfather in the 1920s with a field blend of red and white grapes. There are three terraces, where they also have almond, cherry and fig trees ... the concept of a vineyard-vegetable garden from yesteryear, and it is surrounded by a pine forest. They vinified it as a red, but it has 40% white grapes (mostly Viura, but also some Garnacha Blanca, Calagraño, Rojal and others) as well as a mix of reds (mostly Garnacha but also including a little Tempranillo, Miguel del Arco and others). It fermented in an open-top 500-liter oak barrel with some full clusters with indigenous yeasts and aged in a well-seasoned 400-liter barrel, where it matured for 14 months. It has an incredible nose—floral, aromatic and spicy, dominated by Garnacha but with something reminiscent of a Mediterranean Pinot Noir. It's surprisingly structured for a clarete, the tannins are very fine, and it's long, tasty, almost salty, juicy but elegant. Only 520 bottles were filled in December 2019. The wine's name means 'road to Santo Domingo (de la Calzada).' 95/100