Las Tierras El Teso Alto 2015 Red Wine

Elaboration

Las Tierras de Javier Rodríguez El Teso Alto 2015 begins with a number that stops you in your tracks: 1886. The pre-phylloxera vines of Finca el Teso in El Pego were planted over 130 years ago — before the phylloxera epidemic that devastated European viticulture ever reached these gravel soils at 830 metres altitude in the Toro denomination — and they have been producing fruit of extraordinary concentration and natural depth ever since. Pre-phylloxera vines grow on their own rootstocks, as nature intended, developing a relationship with their specific soil and microclimate over decades and centuries that grafted modern vines simply cannot replicate. The harvest is collected by hand in boxes, selected at a sorting table, protected with dry ice to preserve every aromatic nuance, and fermented in wooden vats with 25 to 30 days of skin contact. After pressing, the wine moves to new barrels of 225, 300 and 500 litres for malolactic fermentation — three different vessel sizes chosen to contribute different dimensions of oak character and oxygen exchange — before spending three full years in new and second-year barrels of 80% French and 20% American oak. The result has been awarded Decanter Platinum — one of only 20 Spanish wines ever to receive this distinction — alongside 98 points from Vivir el Vino, 95 from Luca Maroni and Guía Peñín, and 94 from Tim Atkin. A wine of genuinely historic significance.