Ugarte Cuarenta Rioja 2017

Ageing; Three months in French oak

Structure; Medium Bodied Red

Food pairing ideas; Roast Lamb or grilled Goat chops.

Description:

This is a blend of 90% Tempranillo, and 10% Graciano, spending just 3 months in barrel and 5 months in bottle. It is soft and juicy, partly down to the maloactic fermentation it undergoes.

Producer Profile:

Eguren Ugarte is a family company, whose Riojas are marketed under the Ugarte name. The family traces its winemaking back to 1870, when Don Amancio Ugarte began to cultivate vines and mature his own wines. Situated in the Rioja Alavesa just outside the lovely medieval hill town of Laguardia, Victorino Eguren Ugarte, grandson of the founder , with his children built the new cellar Heredad Ugarte (Heredad = heir or heritage). At harvest time the grapes are driven up to the reception area above the cellars, which then use a gravity system to fill the fermentation tanks, from which the wine later goes to the oak barrels below for ageing. Thus the wine gets the gentlest treatment at all stages of its life.