Miguel Merino: La Quinta Cruz Mazuelo 2018

Weingut über: La Quinta Cruz Mazuelo

-- Weingut: Mazuelo is a fertile, vigorous plant which requires a long-cycle to reach complete ripening. It is also sensitive to many diseases. All this explains why Mazuelo is more adequate to the Mediterranean latitudes than to an Atlantic influenced land as Rioja Alta. Only the extraordinary characteristics of our Quinta Cruz vineyard allow us to make this wine in our town.La Quinta Cruz was planted in 1986 in the Southeast slope of Calvario Hill, in Briones, very close to the Ebro River. It is a steep vineyard of 1.2 ha. with very thin topsoil of sand and gravel, completely covered by round pebbles. All these factors prevent Mazuelo from behaving as it is, fertile and vigorous, and allow us to make a 100% Mazuelo wine in the Atlantic-influenced Rioja Alta region.We harvested 4,400 kgs at La Quinta Cruz in 2018. The grapes were picked by hand on October 13th, and transported in small crates to the sorting table, then fermented in a small stainless-steel tank at a controlled temperature of 24-25oC with very few remontages.Then, the wine went through malolactic fermentation in two 500-litre and six 225-l barrels, all of French oak and all used before. After that, the wine rested in the same barrels for 12 months.3,200 bottles of our La Quinta Cruz 2018, one of the very few Mazuelo wines in Rioja, but also one of the rare single-estate brands in the region.