Villota Las Anchas

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.

95% Tempranillo, 5% Graciano

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. For Las Anchas, Villota selects grapes from the Las Anchas, Lentisco, Central, Bartolo, and Cabo Conejos parcels.

Average planting date of 1954

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 bunches are destemmed and the berries sorted before spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel (the varieties are fermented separately) with temperature control, remontage, and delestage. Total fermentation and maceration lasts ~18 days. MLF in French barrique.

22 months in French oak barrique (10% new) followed by three months in concrete tank.

Villota Las Anchas is the top cuvée produced by the winery - this remarkable wine is a selection of the finest plots in the Finca San Rafael (Las Anchas, Lentisco, Central, Bartolo, and Cabo Conejos), which average 70 years old. If we compare the two top wines of the estate, Viña Gena and Las Anchas, Viña Gena (from a Grand Cru Viñedo Singular) is Burgundy inspired, where Las Anchas, like all classic Rioja, is a Bordeaux inspired, structured and powerful (yet refined) blend of the best parcels in the estate.