Product Details
The reserva wines of Marqués de Riscal are made basically from grapes coming from vines over 15 years old, of the Tempranillo variety. This is a variety that ages well in wood, producing wines with a good tannic structure, colour and acidity during the ageing process. The reserva wines of Riscal spend approximately two years in American oak barrels, forming a wine which adheres to the principles of classic Rioja wines. Aroma: On the nose, this wine does not need to breathe. From the beginning, it reveals a pleasant bouquet which evolves, in stages, from the balsamic aroma of the still glass to oaky vanilla after swirling it in the glass, passing through an intermediate spicy phase. In the production of gran reserva wines, Riscal uses grapes from old vines over 30 years of age, either from its own production or acquired from reliable local wine growers. Having selected the wine for gran reserva, following the unification of the vintage, the wine passes to American oak barrels where it will remain for between two and a half and three years, plus a further three years in bottle before its release onto the market. Marqués de Riscal has 195 hectares of vineyard devoted, among others, to the plantation of the native Verdejo variety, a versatile grape with a lot of character and personality that permits the production of both fresh or oak aged white wines. The Verdejo grapes, together with the Viura, also grown locally, once destemmed and chilled, are cold macerated in order to extract the maximum aromas from the skins and increase the strength of the wine while avoiding the extraction of pigments or astringency. The must is fermented slowly over 20-30 days, at a carefully controlled temperature of between 12ºC and 13ºC in order to preserve the aromas of the variety. After a period of ageing, the wine will be bottled during the months of January and March following the harvest.
