VALPICULATA

VALPICULATA

Founded by Juan Pablo Peñalba – elder brother of Ricardo (see Finca Torremilanos) – in 1999 in partnership with Victor Garretas, whose family have been growing vines in Toro for some 200 years; and their small estate consists of just 15 hectares in and around Venialbo in the south west of Zamora Province.

Phylloxera never took hold here, for the soils – strewn with numerous boulders - are sandy, dry and barren. Yields are low, with an average yield of about 1.5 kilos per plant; the vines ungrafted and varying in age between 40 and 100. The climate is harsh and with extreme differences of temperature - 40°C on summer days but with cold, frosty winters and minimal rainfall, most of which comes in the spring. The duo do not irrigate their vines and so only 70% of their new plantings survive.

The grapes are hand-picked at dawn; and fermentation is effected in small concrete tanks, plot by plot, relying purely on the fruit’s natural, wild yeasts. The oak ageing process is undertaken in new and semi-new Tronçais and Allier barricas that are made on site.

 

RED

 
PUERTAS NOVAS