In 2005, after coming back from my New Zealand adventure, I took total responsibility of the family vineyard production in Haro. At the same time, I was also in charge of XdT wine production. It is a millennial winery located in Abalos town, below the Rioja Sonsierra chain of mountains.
During 2005 and 2006, I started to select what I considered the best quality grapes of our vines and decided to produce my own wine with them. Although, at that stage, I still had not got my own winery yet.
2005 Vintage was produced at Pastor Díaz winery, in Aldeanueva de Ebro (South-East of Rioja). It was made from high quality grapes with an excellent phenolic maturity. Both fermentations, alcoholic and malolactic, were done in stainless steel tanks at regulating temperature. Once the second fermentation was finished, the wine was introduced to American oak barrels and after a year aging, the wine was decanted to another stainless steel tank until bottling.
2006 Vintage was produced at Javier San Pedro winery, in Laguardia (Vasc-country side of Rioja), with grapes of the same characteristics as last year and great phenolic maturity; by the beginning of October, we were able to harvest them and later produce our wine. Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations were also done in stainless steel tanks but we decided to use French oak barrels for the aging.
Something interesting between both vintages is that, given the grapes used were from the same plot, in the same conditions and harvest being different every year; they both have the typified characteristics of the place where they were made. The vintage 2005 preserves the characteristics found in a wine made in Lower Rioja and the vintage 2006 preserves the fresh fruit found in Rioja Alavesa (Vasc country).
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