VINA PEDROSA

Founded in 1980, when the three Perez Pascuas brothers, Benjami­n, Manuel and Adolfo, taking their father’s 60 year old Tempranillo (known here as Tinto Fino) vines to form the core of the vineyard, set themselves the task of making a world-class wine in the then relatively unknown Ribero del Duero region. The estate now comprises 135 hectares of chalk/clay slope, the winery situated on top of the hill just outside the village of Pedrosa de Duero, with panoramic views over the surrounding vineyards and countryside. This altitudinous location is responsible for their overall micro-climate being cooler, with a considerable diurnal temperature differential providing a more protracted growing season with the grapes hanging longer on the vine for slow ripening – the harvest here is often completed weeks after surrounding, lower lying vineyards. The wines are judiciously matured in French oak casks to produce serious, multi-layered wines of great elegance and finesse.

The Cepa Gavilan is made from the youngest vines and given 12 months in cask. The 2010 shows well-evolved coffee, cigar and olive notes, and is delicious to drink now. The Crianza, aged for 18 months in cask offers a medium to full-body and displays sumptuous aromas of red cherry, coffee and spice, with supple tannins and a persistent finish. La Navilla comes from a single vineyard site at an altitude of 844m. It is planted with vines grafted from the oldest and original clone of Tinto Fino. It spends 20 months in Allier oak barrels and like all the Viña Pedrosa wines, has a lovely freshness and precision coupled with a rich, dark fruit profile. The Reserva and Gran Reserva wines are made from 90% Tinto Fino vines (which have an average age of 30 and 45 years respectively) and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The production is very small and as such they are both released in numbered bottles. The Perez Pascuas Gran Seleccion is regarded as the ‘Vino de la Famila’and only 5000 bottles are made. Produced from original Tempranillo vines, now around 80 years old, it is aged for 26 months in American and French oak casks. An extraordinary, complex wine with intense aromas of red cherry and blueberry fruit, walnuts, clove, sweet red peppers with a stony minerality, leather and clay. On the palate it is rich, silky and well balanced with a wonderful acidity, rounded tannins and a long persistent finish.