Region
Spain › Castile and León › Ribera del Duero › Ribera del Duero DO
Type
red · still
Grapes
Tempranillo
Alcohol
13.5%
Volume
750 mL
Available at
Tasting Notes(1)
4.1
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Los Colmenares is a paraje on the eastern side of Gumiel de Mercado, and this is the wine Rodrigo and Asier Calvo use to show it on its own. They put the three plots behind it on the front label, with their sizes: Cuesta Rubial at 8.2 hectares, El Olivo at 2.4 and Carraquintana at 0.9.
The vineyards sit high. WineWine, the Ukrainian importer, places the vines at roughly 850 to 890 metres on shallow clay and limestone. The Dutch importer Grapedistrict describes them as about 30 years old and farmed organically.
The grapes are picked by hand into small crates and sorted, and the wine then spends 12 months in French oak barrels that have held wine before, according to WineWine. Used wood fits what the brothers say they are after, which Grapedistrict sums up as less barrel and more freshness and fruit. Directo al Paladar calls the result a mountain wine.
Paraje is not one of the appellation's terms. Ribera del Duero's 2023 specification lets a label name the village the grapes come from, as this one names Gumiel de Mercado, but it recognises nothing smaller. The wine sits above the Village in the Arrocal range: the same family vineyards, narrowed to one place.
