Las Violetas 2017

The other "paraje" bottling started in 2017 is the 2017 Las Violetas, produced with Garnacha grapes from three small vineyards in the zone known as Valverde located at 950 meters in altitude, where the soils are shallow and have a sandy texture from the decomposed granite. They fermented with 15% full clusters and indigenous yeasts in concrete vats and matured in a 10,000-liter Slovenian oak vat for 14 months, the same as the La Cruz Verde. I love the stony austerity here, and the nose is elegant and subtle, with less fruit and more soil. The palate is a bit austere, even in a generous year like 2017, a year of concentration. It has fine, grainy tannins, a bit sharp, with integrated acidity. This is wilder than La Cruz Verde. 11,500 bottles, 250 magnums and some larger formats. It was bottled in January 2019.