Goyo Garcia - "Clarete", Ribeira del Duero, Spain (2021)

TASTING NOTES 

From high elevation, dry farmed Tempranillo vineyards, this wine shows a lovely interplay between sweet, macerated cherries alongside a sour core. Fresh, elegant, mineral driven with raspberries, wet stones and sage herbal notes. 

100% Tinta Fina (Tempranillo) from the Los Quemados vineyard. At 960m above sea level this is one of the highest vineyards in Ribera del Duero. The grapes are destemmed and macerate for 5-6 days in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. As fermentation begins, the juice is racked off the skins into old French oak barrels to ferment and complete malolactic. This style of shorter maceration winemaking is what Goyo terms “clarete.” Bottled without addition of SO2 and without fining or filtering.

Tasting one of Goyo García Viadero's wines is like taking a delightful trip back in a winemaking time machine. Goyo is a descendant of one of the most well-respected winemaking families in the Ribera de Duero region. 

With vines that are a minimum of 80 years old, Goyo farms three small plots of his  own in the Ribera de Duero, each at different elevations and on different types of soil. Each vineyard is interplanted with both red and white grapes, which he later co-ferments using natural methods, as winemakers did in the older days of Ribera de Duero winemaking.

This method has become somewhat of a trend for more contemporary winemakers. For Goyo, it has been his tried and true way of doing things since he began making wine back in the 80’s. He uses these traditional winemaking methods in order to express a flavour profile that reflects the overall vineyard rather than the individual grape variety.