Abadía de San Quirce Crianza (14.5% ABV) Red Wine 2019

Although José Antolín made his name by founding a multinational in car parts, he has never forgotten the small village where he grew up in Ribera del Duero. Fearing that such villages - including their centuries-old wine-growing traditions - would disappear completely under the influence of industrialized agriculture, he started Bodegas Abadía de San Quirce.

José's main goal is to protect and preserve the traditionally cultivated vineyards with old vines tinto fino, the local name of tempranillo. To this end, Abadía de San Quirce owns 21 hectares and manages another 80 hectares of vineyards. The vines are between fifteen and more than a hundred years old and no less than 20% of the plantings date from before the phylloxera plague!

For the Crianza, winemaker Diana Moreno Grávalos uses grapes from vines on average forty years old. They are harvested in vineyards at an altitude of about 800 meters, with soils of sand, lime and clay. Once fermented, Diana matures the wine for four months on the yeasts and another fourteen months in a mix of new and used French and American oak barrels.