2014 Rioja El Velado

The second of the three new single-vineyard bottlings is the 2014 El Velado, a southeast-facing plot in the village of Lanciego that has a high proportion of Garnacho from Viñaspre as well as other varieties in a field blend where Tempranillo dominates. It fermented in an open-top, 2,000-kilogram oak vat with indigenous yeasts and matured in 500-liter casks for 15 months. There were some reductive, phosphor-like aromas to start with. There is a little more rusticity here with earthier aromas, a little more marked by the élevage. This was a vineyard marked by the Garnacha, and they also used to include it in the Altos de Lanzaga blend in previous vintages. With time, the oak becomes a little more obvious. Only 507 bottles were filled in May 2016 from a very small vintage, but they have potential to produce maybe 3,000 bottles in the future.