Bodegas Amaren, Carraquintana Rioja Alavesa 2018 Bodegas Amaren

Get to know: Bodegas Amaren, Carraquintana Rioja Alavesa 2017

Tasting Note

A unique single vineyard wine that includes 10% white Malvasia in the blend to create a wonderfully floral and delicate nose that is unusual for a red wine. There is excellent concentration of dark red fruit from the majority of old vine Tempranillo (over 80 years old.) The palate is well structured and more powerful than the nose suggests, and has a tenaciously fruity and long finish. This is a layered and rewarding wine that offers a fresh perspective on Rioja wine.

Try this with game, cured cheeses or a warming stew.

Kate Says

“We’ve always loved Luis Cañas wines, so when we discovered his grandsons Amaren project, we were very interested to find out more. Well, the wines from his modern and imaginative approach are as stunning as you’d expect.”

Producer Info

Bodegas Amaren is comprised of some of best and highest altitude vineyards around the villages of Samaniego and Leza, where the soil is poor and gnarly vines, ageing up to and over 100 years old, produces small bunches, perfect for making highly concentrated Rioja wines.

Jon Cañas (Luis Cañas’ grandson) is the imaginative winemaker behind Bodegas Amaren and he has free rein to explore the character of Alavesa’s vineyards, giving us a raw, modern interpretation of Rioja Alavesa. 

They practice “à la carte” viticulture, which means that each vine is treated according to its own needs (variety, phenological stage and weather conditions).

Grapes are hand harvested and sorted. Only the most perfect grapes are allowed to pass to wooden vats of French oak for fermentation, which lasts seven days. The resulting wine is then racked to new French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation for total of 14 months in new 500L French oak barrels from a selection of oak forests in central France.