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Wine Description
The Story
Mas La Plana is a 29-hectare vineyard located in the heart of Penedès. The Cabernet Sauvignon vines were planted by Miguel A. Torres back in 1966. The vineyard has very deep, dark and yellowish brown soils. The topsoil is rich in sand and stones while the subsoil is gravel.
In the Paris Wine Olympiad, the 1970 vintage triumphed over some of the most famouswines in the world, including Chateau Latour. This success has been repeated on several other occasions, with Gran Coronas Mas La Plana notching up numerous other international awards.
Appellation: DO Penedès (Mas La Plana vineyard, Alt Penedès, Catalunya)
Year vines planted: 1964-1979
Surface area: 29 ha/72 acres
Elevation: 225 m
Slope: 0-5%
Orientation: South East
Yield: 4,593 Kg/ha. Grape clusters are selected manually
Soil: Deep, yellowish grey-brown alluvial soils that are well-drained and have a moderate water holding capacity. Made up of alternating layers of gravel, sand and clay.
Percipitation: Annual average rainfall (historical): 549 mm
Temperature: Annual average temperature (historical): 14.3ºC
Vintage 2019
Excellent Vintage in Rioja – the ratification of the qualification as 'EXCELLENT' of the 2019 vintage, a milestone that had not occurred since 2011!
After a vegetative cycle with optimum ripening of the grapes, in recent months extraordinary results have been observed in the evaluation of the fermentation tanks, from which the Council's technicians have collected more than 4,500 samples, which have subsequently been tasted by a panel of 150 professionals.
Pablo Franco, director of the Control Body of the Regulatory Council, took stock of the 2019 campaign, referring to the excellent health and vegetative situation of the vineyard and the state of the bunches, loose, well aerated and accompanied by the moderate vigor of the plants. In Franco's words "the year was marked by the stability in the evolution of the vineyard, not exempt from certain very local incidents produced by meteorological phenomena of little general importance".
Regarding the resulting wines, the director of the Control Body of the Council highlighted their quality, underlining the extraordinary maturation in tannin: “a round and very silky tannin that has marked red wines since their elaboration, which is very pleasantly surprising for manifest itself now and especially for having these sensations in wines with a high polyphenolic load such as this year, where the IPTs define a marked structure, with intense colors. In turn, it is worth highlighting the consolidation of lighter tones in the color of rosé wines, with a predominant aromatic expression towards more floral notes. White wines are very expressive, highlighting their great volume on the palate, in line with what is seen in reds. The commitment to autochthonous varieties and the great evolution of the quality of their elaborations is also valued ”.
In the words of Pablo Franco, “there is no doubt that, according to the behavior of the vineyard and in turn what was discovered in the wines, the 2019 vintage is‘ THE harvest ’. A vintage that reflects the true mastery of time management by winegrowers and winemakers ”.
It should be remembered that the amount harvested in the 2019 harvest was around 385 million kg of grapes (of which 342 were red grapes and 43 were white grapes) and 267.27 million liters of the 2019 harvest obtained the certification as wines protected by the DOCa Rioja (22.11 for white, 12.50 for rosé and 233.08 for red).