La Otea - Verdejo (21)

Verdejo | 'La Otea' | 3 percelen vanaf 2020 | stokken van 100-150 jaar oud | zanderig terroir in Villanueva de Duero en Hornillos de Eresma | whole bunch press | vergisting en rijping op eikenhouten vaten van 600 liter | spanning | levendig | expressief | verfijnder in 2020 | Jura style | notig | strakke zuren | karafferen

Isaac Cantalapiedra

De familie Cantalapiedra bezit ongeveer 20 hectare in het gebied la Seca, op 750 meter hoogte en ten hoogte van Madrid. Manuel maakt deel uit van de huidige generatie en heeft een duidelijke visie; rijpere stijl Verdejo van biologische druiven. Daarnaast hebben ze drie single vineyards genaamd: 'Chivitero', 'Los Picones' en 'La Otea' en sinds kort is hij ook begonnen met een project in Toro waar hij met de inheemse druif Tinto de Toro een hele fraaie rode wijn maakt. Inmiddels is de hele serie in ons assortiment en bijna niet meer weg te denken in de topgastronomie.

Review

The still-unreleased 2020 La Otea is from a challenging year with fungal diseases and a reduction of yields of around 30%. It's slightly lower in alcohol and acidity than the 2019 I tasted next to it; 2020 and 2019 are two very different years that show how the ancient ungrafted vines can be quite homogeneous and cushion the vintage effect in the wine. Starting in 2020, this wine contains grapes from other ancient and ungrafted vines, the original plot in Villanueva de Duero plus two more in Hornillos de Eresma, 100+ years old in a cooler place. The wine also has a subtle change of name—they removed the word Majuelo (plot) from the label. Another subtle change in 2020 is that they pressed the full clusters instead of the destemmed grapes. Despite the character and challenges of the vintage, this feels subtler, more harmonious and elegant, with more freshness and depth. He got very low yields in 2020, but the wine is fine-boned, not heavy; it's agile, balanced, long, expressive, clean and really impressive. 2,008 bottles and 30 magnums were filled in May 2022. 94+/100 Luis Gutiérrez

The Cantalapiedra family is in the heart of Rueda, in the village of La Seca, but like many small producers, they sell their wines with the wider Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León appellation despite the fact that they are textbook whites from Rueda. They started bottling their own wine in 2014, as before they sold all their grapes. They now produce wines from a great part of their 21 hectares of vineyards, worked organically for over 15 years already, and they still sell the rest of the grapes to other wineries in the region, something that they stopped in 2022. They have bought some more vineyards of ancient ungrafted vines in Alcazarén, Hornillos de Eresma and Toro, where they also purchase some grapes. They produce 95,000 bottles per year.