La Viña de Mis Ojos 2021 | Vinos Sinceros | Arlanza

Vinos Sinceros is the personal project of Luis Martín de la Fuente, born in Lerma (Burgos) in 1967, who since 2010 has run Vinoval, a wine promotion company with over 800 references. The project grew out of the recovery of abandoned vineyards in the heart of DO Arlanza, an appellation that follows the Arlanza River valley — a Duero tributary — through central Burgos and southeastern Palencia. With barely 440 hectares and DO status only since 2007, Arlanza is one of the smallest appellations in Castilla y León.

Luis works around 70 parcels near Covarrubias and Lerma on calcareous, stony soils, most of them old and co-planted with multiple varieties. The name Colina Triste comes from the Sad Hill Cemetery, the circular duelling arena from the final scene of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966), filmed at the foot of Peña Carazo, a few kilometres from these vineyards. The first vintage was 2016, the film's 50th anniversary. The red blends Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mencía and Bobal from old vines; the Colina Triste Blanco is a co-fermentation of Viura, Malvasía, Chasselas, Albillo Mayor and Rojal — all co-planted in a single old parcel — with spontaneous fermentation and partial barrel contact.

La Viña de Mis Ojos ("the vineyard of my eyes") is 100% Brancellao from vines over 150 years old, aged 20 months in used 500-litre French oak barrels. Just 700 bottles. Across the range: no added yeasts, old wood and recovered heritage varieties.