deAlto, La Planta Magica, Garnacha Viñas Viejas Rioja, Spain, 2019

Producer Profile

deAlto Rioja y Más pays tribute to our long-standing love for all things Spanish: the food, the people, and of course the wine…

Master of Wine Giles Cooke, has led our winemaking team to craft a range that illustrates the brilliant potential of Rioja, Navarra and La Mancha as well as the quality of fruit that these regions can deliver when respectful, sustainable techniques are maintained. Drawing on the revered, in-depth knowledge of Paul Shinnie and the technical skills of Marta Juega Rivera, these wines offer a tantalising taste of contemporary Spain. Over a decade’s worth of dedication, travel and experimentation have culminated in the creation of deAlto Rioja y Más, which joins the family of Alliance-owned wineries, Thistledown Wines in Australia and Terres Fidèles in France. Responding to the need for a more sustainable future, our wineries harness the best vineyards to produce wines that are connected by a similar spirit of adventure, experimentation, creativity and commitment to sustainable wine production.

Viticulture

La Planta Magica is named after the Mistletoe to be found in the almond trees that surround this old, bush trained Garnacha Vineyard. Close to the town of Aldeanueva in the Rioja Oriental, this small vineyard has beautifully balanced vines that yield very small quantities of fruit. Tiny berries and almost perfect acid enable us to hand pick ripe fruit with an analysis that allows for very low intervention winemaking. A remarkable vineyard just waiting to be rediscovered as one of the jewels of Rioja.

Winemaking

After intensive sampling and tasting in the vineyard, the fruit is hand-picked into 12kg baskets to protect the bunches prior to arrival at the winery. Open, shallow, 5 ton fermenters are filled first by 25% whole bunches before the crushed fruit is added. 5 days of temperature controlled cold soak followed before the must was warmed and a spontaneous fermentation began. A brief maceration on skins post ferments helped to balance tannins prior to pressing and then ageing in a mix of 225l and 500l French oak barrels for up to 12 months.

Oak Ageing

Time: 12 Months
Type: 225l and 500l French oak
% wine oaked: 100
% new oak: 5

Tasting Note

An unashamedly contemporary style of rioja that relies not on oak or age but on quality of fruit and a subtle, nuanced approach to winemaking. What marks out this wine is the quiet, brooding intensity on the nose that gives way to a rich, yet lean palate of wild, dark cherry, warm spices, cranberry and liquorice. The spice from the french oak is integrated and supporting without dominating. Spectacular fruit with huge reserves of energy are the signature of this remarkable new expression of rioja. Plenty of ageing potential but produced in an energetic, vibrant style that ensures that it is attractive in its youth.

Food Matching

Roast milk fed lamb, slow roast pork shoulder with Moroccan spices, vegetable tagine, grilled rib-eye with chimichurri sauce.

Awards

Decanter 94 Points
A bright, polished Garnacha with fine oak, a bold, spicy palate and an expressive long finish. I'd descrive its style as 'modern' and so it is - a recent(2019) project from Giles Cooke MW, a keen Garnach-ista, already working with the variety in Australia and now in Rioja and Navarra. Fermented with 20% whole bunches, and aged for a year in a mix of older and new French oak. Drink 2023-2026. 94 Points, March 2023.
The Real Review 92 Points
Medium, intense ruby-red colour in the glass. The nose lifts with crushed raspberries, rosemary and woody spices. Medium-weighted palate, good intensity of dark fruits with spice and earth layered underneath. A hint of freshening acidity gives lift, and the tannin profile is soft but gives good length. 92 Points.
Tim Atkin Rioja Special Report
Appealingly fresh and floral for a Garnacha, with only 13% alcohol, this is a sappy, juicy, wild yeast-fermented red from a single parcel of bush-vine grapes in Aldeanueva de Ebro. With the emphasis on flavour rather than oak, this is spicy and appealing with raspberry, cherry and wild strawberry fruit and zesty acidity. 2022-25.