Alto de la Estrella 2019 | SOTOMANRIQUE | Cebreros
Viñedo plantado en 1961 a una altitud de 1100 metros sobre el nivel del mar en Cebreros-Sierra de Gredos. Parcela de 1,3 hectáreas sobre suelo pizarroso con la roca madre muy cercana a la planta y con presencia de una veta de cuarzo que atraviesa la parcela. 100% Garnacha.
La fermentación es en depósito de hormigón y el encubado es de 45 días. El prensado fue ligero y el vino pasa directamente a fudres de 2000 litros, donde el vino reposa durante 14 meses. Embotellado sin filtrar.
PEÑÍN: 96
COLOR: cereza
AROMA: complejo, expresivo, mineral, fruta roja, fruta madura, floral, hierbas de monte
BOCA: elegante, lleno, largo, persistente
PARKER: 95
The single-vineyard red 2019 Alto de la Estrella comes from a plot in the zone of Arrebatacapas at 1,080 meters in altitude on slate and quartz soils, a 1.3-hectare vineyard that is organically farmed and ripens slowly and late. The grapes were picked the first week of October at 14% alcohol and fermented with the natural yeasts and 20% full clusters in concrete, and then the wine was transferred to a 2,000-litre oak foudre, where it matured for 14 months. Curiously enough, this is the palest of the reds from 2019. The second palest is La Mira, the other wine from slate soils. 2019 is a year of more concentration and power, a warm and dry year, according to Soto "a more Côte-Rôtie vintage." They seem to have fine-tuned the handling of the vineyard, the highest-altitude vineyard in Cebreros, and it's starting to show its true dimension. It's a lot more refined than the 2018. I wonder if 2018 was still suffering from the terrible hail of 2017 that left the vineyard without a single grape or leaf. This is superb, what I expect from a vineyard like this. 2,500 bottles were filled in February 2021.