La Bella Old Vine Garnacha 2018

TASTING NOTES: LA BELLA is a disarmingly beautiful and bold Spanish red, with a richly complex character and voluptuous body. Brimming with elegance, charm and finesse, LA BELLA was born of our ancient bush vines. With age comes exceptional beauty, harnessed by Pamela to create this lusciously opulent and refined red wine. The ageing in French oak barrels adds a red-velvety-smoothness and subtle hints of vanilla to the peppery spice and brilliant berry aromas of this fine wine. Enjoy with grilled meats, such as a succulent fillet steak. LA BELLA’s elegance and finesse also make it delightfully warming and pleasurable on its own. PAMELA’S GUIDE: “LA BELLA is ready to enjoy now and will age beautifully over the next 10 years or so. I would recommend decanting LA BELLA for at least 20 minutes before serving at around 18˚C with fine food and good friends.”

ORIGIN: Denominación de Origen (D.O.) Campo de Borja

VINEYARD: LA BELLA hails from our stunning old gnarled bush vines in the heart of D.O. Campo de Borja.

In order to produce just 6,000 bottles and 150 magnums, we only picked grapes from our oldest and lowest-yielding vines, from a small parcel just outside the town of Borja. These vines have evolved to endure and thrive in extreme climatic conditions, whereby the ferocious heat of summer gives way to a fiercely cold winter, famed for the bitter north wind, known locally as El Cierzo.

The vines’ struggle is character-building and leads to great complexity, depth and beauty. In fact, our native Garnacha vines are so well adapted to the local conditions that the region is known as “The Empire of Garnacha” and it can claim to be the rightful home of this internationally-renowned grape.

GRAPES: 100% Old Vines Garnacha (up to 100-year-old vines)

WINEMAKING:

MACERATION: Five-day cold soak with frequent pump overs.

FERMENTATION: Alcohol-tolerant yeast was added to the must, which was fermented at a controlled cool temperature in a small stainless-steel tank, before being racked off skins at 1030D and pressed in a small, pneumatic press. 500 litres from the first pressing were decanted into a new French oak Allier barrel and fermented to dryness, followed by malo-lactic fermentation in the barrel. The rest of the wine – 4,225 litres - was fermented to dryness in a small cool temperature-controlled stainless-steel tank: - 1,500 litres of this wine were then decanted into three 500-litre, third-use, medium-toast French oak Allier barrels for malo-lactic fermentation. - The rest – 2,725 litres - was kept in small stainless-steel tanks, with the lees stirred every two to three days. AGEING: Pamela chose 100% French oak for the elegant nuances it brings to the delicate Garnacha wine, using mainly 500-litre barrels in order not to overpower the wine’s natural beauty and brilliance. The wine was aged for four months in the French oak Allier barrels and small stainless-steel tanks and then racked and decanted for the next stage of ageing, which lasted for a further four months: - 4,000 litres were aged a small temperature-controlled stainless-steel tank. - 500 litres were aged in a new French oak Red Velvet barrel. - 225 litres were aged in a new medium-toast Allier barrel.

BOTTLING: The wine was blended and bottled in July 2019.

TECHNICAL DATA: ABV: 15% Total Acidity: 5.5 g/l. Total Sugars: <2.0 g/l.