Quiñón de Valmira

The just-bottled 2023 Quiñón de Valmira was hitting it on all cylinders the morning I tasted it. It was exuberant, aromatic, floral, extroverted and really singing, with incredible harmony for a wine that had been bottled only a couple of weeks before I tried it. It had a shorter maceration, a mere 13 days (compared with the from 45 from the 2022), and also a shorter élevage, 13 months. 2023 continued the dry and warm tendency of 2022 that made them work more and differently in the vineyards to keep the humidity in the soil and have more vegetation, which seems to help the sticks hold up the vines.

I tasted the 2022 Quiñón de Valmira that I had already tasted before bottling last year, but this time I tasted it from bottle and next to the 2023. The year seems to have marked a change in the weather and even the aromatic profiles of the wines, but the Garnacha seems to resist. It delivered what it promised but, unfortunately, suffered in the comparison with the superb 2023. It has a pale ruby color with purple tints of youth. It's 85% Garnacha (not 58%, as I wrote last year), with the remaining 15% from other traditional varieties, fermented with a long maceration and some full clusters and matured in oak foudres for 17 months, after which it rested in concrete for another six months. It's floral, expressive, elegant and open, a little shier than the 2023, with ripeness, juicy red fruit and very fine tannins, just slightly dusty. It finishes dry and with some stony austerity that I loved. It comes in at 14% alcohol, with a pH of 3.5 and 5.3 grams of acidity. 5,680 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2024.

The single-vineyard 2020 Quiñón de Valmira was produced with the Garnacha field blend that contains 10% other traditional varieties from the Valmira Vineyard at 616 meters in altitude. It fermented with some full clusters with indigenous yeasts in oak vats and matured in oak foudres and bocoyes for 16 months. It's very spicy, peppery and aromatic, floral, a little à la Vosne-Romanée, with depth and complexity, very chalky, nicely textured, tasty, elegant and long. There is concentration and power, with 13.8% alcohol and a pH of 3.48 and 5.1 grams of acidity (tartaric), yet it's very balanced and elegant too. There are 3,973 bottles, 131 magnums and some large formats. It was bottled in April 2022.