1995 Reserva (Rioja)

Until 1990, this estate sold its grapes to other bodegas, but then a group of investors began a joint venture with the Marques de Vargas aimed at producing estate-bottled wines. Viticulture was reorganized to reduce yields from about 45 hectoliters per hectare to less than 30, and the first commercial release was 1991. The vines are pruned short, green pruning is carried out in copious years, and the use of pesticides and herbicides has been eliminated. In this very warm spot at a distance from the river ("our climate is more like the Graves than like Lafite," notes director Jose Bezares Osaba), mostly tempranillo is planted, although there is some mazuelo and old-vines garnacha. The estate is also experimenting with cabernet and merlot. According to Bezares, the bodega uses a "low-yield," gentle press. Fermentation takes place in medium-sized stainless steel tanks, by variety or by vineyard lot. The grapes come in with rather high potential alcohol, and the fermentation is aggressive, with the temperature of the must quickly climbing to 33oC and then cooled to 30oC or 31oC. The cap is punched down once a day during and after the fermentation, and total time on the skins is as long as a month, including substantial further maceration after the end of the fermentation. The first selection takes place after the malolactic in tank, and the wines are then transferred without clarification into a blend of American, French and Russian oak barrels for 18 to 24 months of aging (generally new oak for the first year for reserva and gran reserva wines and one-year-old barrels thereafter). The Vargas wines are lightly filtered but not fined, and current annual production is about 20,000 cases. "Send me your tasting notes," Bezares told me as I left. "I like criticism." This is an estate to watch.