Solar de Randez Tempranillo 2022 (750 ml)

The 2022 Solar de Randez Joven (young wine with no oak) comes from a 15-hectare plot of organic 40 to 60 year old vineyards that grow on a hill with both north and south facing slopes. The ripeness levels that come from the different sides of the hill create amazing depth in this fresh and young wine. Sitting on calcareous clay soils mixed with sand and rock, the layers displayed in this dense, ink-colored red are fantastically expressive. After time in stainless steel, and then four months in concrete vat, the resulting fruit is ripe, bright, and a deliciously bright wine. The Joven has beautiful aromas of red and black cherries with a touch of licorice, and the palate follows with a medium-bodied, yet impressively structured mouthfeel for a young wine, full of dark fruits, and a lingering finish of black pepper, licorice and fig.

'Solar de Randez’ roughly means the ‘House of Randez,’ which is an old family name of the estate ‘orcas’ refers to an old local tool that was used to turn up the dirt between rows in the vineyard.

Bodegas las Orcas is a small, family-owned and operated winery in the Rioja Alavesa region of Spain.  All the way back to the year 1900 in the medieval town of Laguardia, the family wines were made in their traditional cellar underneath the town, until the construction of their new bodega happened just outside the town walls in 1999. Raimundo and his wife Cristina run the winery today and make remarkable Rioja wines using only fruit from their own family vineyards.  The vineyards are tended naturally without the use of artificial fertilizers or pesticides, and the wines are fermented using native yeasts and absolutely minimal filtration (also, all the wines are vegan friendly).  As a result, they make exceptional Rioja that brings together historic practices in the cellar, while also taking advantage of some more modern techniques, all while offering great value for authentically made wine from an area where large production has become a norm.

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