Producer >
David Sampedro and his wife, Melanie Hickman own and run this 9.5 ha biodynamic estate around the village of Elvillar in the Rioja Alavesa where limestone soils meander through three valleys that run between the Sierra Cantabria mountains and the River Ebro. 3.5 ha of their property is made up of single vineyard sites, elaborated under the banner ‘Struggling Vines’. They also exploit some small plots of Rufete on the granite and slate soils of the Sierra Francia in the province of Salamanca as well as another project in Navarra. Their mission is to rescue plots of old vines, work them manually and with all the soil work being done with the use of a horse. Their winery is solar powered and is partly built underground with cement fermentation tanks to help control temperatures. Ageing takes place for the top wines in French oak 500 and 600 litre casks.
Winemaking >
"V I N E Y A R D
Sourced from many different clones of old, bush vine Viura grown in the .68-hectare clay and limestone soil La Revilla vineyard. Planted with red and white grapes in 1925, each vine driven by a stake and Biodynamically farmed with horses.
W I N E M A K I N G
The grapes were hand-harvested in 10 kg crates, destemmed and foot crushed with a natural fermentation on the skins, pressed and transferred to used 225-liter oak barrels, where the wine matured for six years. The barrels were not topped up (and didn´t develop flor)."