Coleccion 125 Rosado

Colección 125 is Chivite's top line, launched in 1985 to mark 125 years since the house's first export in 1860 (the family has been in Navarra wine since 1647); the 2007 falls in the long consulting era of Denis Dubourdieu. The Rosado was Spain's argument that rosé can be a cellar wine - barrel-fermented, lees-aged, released slowly and made to keep.

The bottle's own back label documents the 2007: several red varieties from the family vineyards in Aberin and Villatuerta (La Granja de Legardeta), each picked by hand at its own moment; low-temperature maceration, must drawn off by gravity as saignée, fermentation in French oak, then at least six months on its own lees with weekly bâtonnage. Bottled 30 September 2009 - 5,575 bottles and 80 magnums, individually numbered (this one is 004928). The import sticker gives the blend as 60% Tempranillo, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon - the era's trio; the line only moved to Tempranillo-Garnacha around 2013, and one period retail listing shows Tempranillo alone, so the exact split rests on the sticker.

2007, per the label, brought soft summer and autumn temperatures with even ripening and exceptionally healthy fruit. 13.5%.