Alegre y Valgañón - Tinto, Rioja, Spain (2021)

TASTING NOTES

A fresh, "modern" Rioja (which actually is arch-traditional, eschewing the soft, smooth oak stylings of the "big" bodegas and going for a more vibrant, terroir-expressive style) with tonnes of texture and complexity.

While Oscar and Eva have only been producing wine since the 2014 vintage, their ideas developed over a period of years. They met while studying enology in Italy, and they eventually married.

Oscar and Eva minimize the use of wood. To this end, they started their project with a mix of used French barriques and demi-muids. Because French wood loses its flavoring ability much faster than does American oak, they’ve been able to minimize the flavor impact of the wood. And as the project develops, they hope to adopt longer aging and even bigger neutral barrels.