Villota Blanco

D.O.Ca. Rioja

Laserna, a small village located on the Ebro River in the municipality of Laguardia, in the province of Álava. Rioja Alavesa sub-zone.

Viura (85%), Garnacha Blanca (11%), Tempranillo Blanco (2%), Malvasía (2%)

Finca San Rafael, owned and cultivated by the Villota family since the 1930’s. The vineyard is distributed on three terraces that slope gently towards the Ebro River.

1930-1990

Traditional dry-farmed manual viticulture, without the use of systemic herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, or fertilizers. Vines cultivated primarily “en vaso” or goblet style head trained vines.

Primarily of calcareous iron-rich clay, with a high percentage of limestone, and with a deep reddish color. Thousands of years ago the site was covered by the river, and over the years it deposited canto rodado, or galets, across the whole vineyard. Today, certain parcels are completely covered by an impermeable surface of canto rodado, or rolled river stones.

Continental Mediterranean, with a slight Atlantic influence which is moderated by the Sierra de Cantabria. Average annual temperature is 13.8 C (56.8 F) and annual rainfall is around 500 l/m2.

The grapes are destemmed and sorted. Pressed and after a brief cold settling, the must ferments in stainless steel tank. No malolactic fermentation. The Viura is transferred to barrique and puncheon for aging.

Six months in 225L & 500L French oak barrique and puncheon (20% new) with weekly battonage.

Viñas del Lentisco – Villota is owned, operated, and founded by Carmen Pérez-Garrigues and her father Ricardo Pérez- Villota, the fourth and third generations of the Pérez-Villota family, a line of growers that have been rooted to the San Rafael estate in Laserna, Laguardia on a meander of the Ebro River since 1930. In 1973, the Villota family cofounded Viñedos del Contino, Rioja's first single estate winery with CVNE. The partnernship lasted until 2013, when the Villota family broke off, taking the historic family estate with them, and founded their own winery under the Villota brand on this historic plot of land.