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  • Country ranking ?

    128
  • Producer ranking ?

    13
  • Decanting time

    2h
  • When to drink

    Now-2030
  • Food Pairing

    Grilled venison, roasted beef & salty cheeses

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

In 1995 we discovered that some vines produced grapes whose flavor was very different to the one of the vines around them. They produced a sensation of fullness, of volume, with notes that were more alike to a wine than to a grape. Two years later, we made our first CIRSION, which we didn’t commercialized, and we tested that with a short aging, the wine reached a level of incredible silkiness and a fruit complexity out of the ordinary. Each vintage we walk through the vineyards looking for this curious natural peculiarity, and that’s how, one in a thousand, the CIRSION grapes are picked.

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Wine Information

Grape varieties 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano

Vineyard: Selected bunches from different plots. Applied methods from own research and development on polymerisation of tannins and anthocyanins.

Fermentation: In French oak vats, with controlled temperature. Malolactic fermentation in French oak barrels.

Ageing: During 8 months in 100% brand new French oak barrels.

Stabilization: Completely natural methods, clarification with egg whites.

Alcohol: 14.5 % Vol.

Packaging: Cardboard cases of 3 bottles. Single bottles in wooden cases.

Available formats: 75 cl, 1.5 l., 3 l and 6 l. bottles.

 

Tasting:

Colour: Great layer, deep, almost impenetrable and dark red edging.

Nose: Very complex, subtle. Fruits of all the colours, most of them black finding some red that try to find a way among the blackness. Slight cloud of fine smoke that surrounds the ensemble, leaving grand spaces. Freshness in abundance, the feeling of a far field of fresh violets that the wind brings together with the smell of the soil. Elegant, subtle, fine, great..., indescribable.

Palate: Voluminous, ethereal. The feeling of the nose appears caressing the mouth, letting out the freshness of the red fruit among the soil and violets. Fine chocolate filled with blueberry. Long, silky and elegant. With a great future. We are sure that it will be a chamaleon, changing with the time and showing unknown facets. The Graciano has left its mark and pushes from within to come to the surface with its fresh and personal redness.

 

Harvest:

- The fundamental characteristic of the 2012 vintage is to be the second consecutive year of drought.

- 472 mm rainfall were collected in the months of the growing season, but 84 mm. were after the harvest, therefore the rainfall used for the harvest did not reach 400 mm. and we came from a previous year of 363 mm.

- The budding was late due to the cold temperatures and the scarce of water in the soil. From May the temperatures rose and the vineyard recovered the delay. It was a late harvest due to drought..

- As usual during the dry years the health of the grape was excellent.

- The self-regulation of the vine allowed that the ripening was good. There was little vegetation and low production, much lower than usual.

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Vintage 2012

SPAIN 2012 VINTAGE REPORT

The Control Board has given the 2012 Rioja vintage the official rating of ‘VERY GOOD’. The global rating reflects the heterogeneous nature of the vintage. The drought affected both grape volume and grape quality in some vineyards but also resulted in a significant quantity of wine of extremely high quality, in line with the wines of the two previous vintages, both rated ‘excellent’.

In general, Rioja’s vineyards showed good canopy growth and health throughout the growing season. Phenological development was normal in terms of dates compared to the average of the last few years. Although fertility rates were lower than those of the last two seasons, they were still within normal values for the grape varieties of the D.O.Ca. Rioja. The continuing drought that has affected the Region in the past two years curtailed the production of part of those vineyards located in drylands. In late August grape ripening was normal, with average values for hat time of the year.

After a growing cycle beset by drought, the late September rains had a significant impact, with a very positive effect on ripening, improving final berry balance and raising hopes about final production figures for a large part of Rioja vineyards. Most of the harvested grapes were in excellent health with a great balance between alcohol content and polyphenols, leading to wines of superb quality, with good polyphenolic structure , particularly suited for ageing in barrels and laying down for a long time.

Another reason behind the positive outcome of the 2012 vintage was the professionalism of growers and wineries in scheduling the harvest, given the uneven ripening found among different plots, which required selective harvesting to ensure the best quality was obtained from each vineyard. The total production volume of the 2012 harvest in Rioja came to 354.9 million kg of grapes —one of the lowest yields per hectare of the last two decades (5,710 kg/ha) and a significant drop compared to the 387 million kg harvested the previous year.

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Average Bottle Price

2021
165€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

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Information

Origin

Rioja Alta, Rioja

Grapes

90% Tempranillo
10% Graciano

Drinking temperature

17-18C

Inside Information

Press:

94p VINOUS / Antonio Galloni 

 

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