Sometimes we winegrowers and winemakers take notions for granted, but it is logical that they arouse doubts among consumers. At present, several Spanish wine regions, and incipiently in Rioja, are discussing the possibility of differentiating wines according to terroirs, and terms such as village wine, estate wine, plot wine, site wine… can be heard.
Priorat, together with Rioja, the only qualified designations of origin in the country, has been a pioneer in the development of the so-called ‘.Villa winesthat go beyond the subzones and which, with a demarcation of a dozen regions according to soils, climates and tradition, provide a greater guarantee of the origin of the production. In addition to the Villas, Priorato has also developed the ‘Vinos de Finca‘, whose names are linked to the vineyards from which they are obtained and which give them special characteristics.
Familia Martínez Bujanda, integrated with Finca Valpiedra (Rioja) in the Asociación Grandes Pagos de España, works with these concepts linked to authentic terroirs in practically all its wines. Finca Valpiedra and Cantos de Valpiedra (D.O. Rioja), Finca Montepedroso (D.O. Rueda), as well as the crianza and the Ciclos de Finca Antigua (D.O. La Mancha) would be, in addition to village, town or village wines, estate wines because all the grapes come from the natural environment where we grow them.
Familia Martínez Bujanda works with authentic differential terroirs of the closest environment, with yields significantly below the whole of the appellation of origin and with authentic and sustainable viticultural practices that also provide a unique character to our elaborations. The ultimate aim is to characterize with our wines the landscape that surrounds our vineyards, including the risks of submitting to the dictates of Mother Nature.The wines of Familia Martínez Bujanda change every year as does the climate itself and even when conditions are not suitable for the production of certain wines, the vintage remains blank, as happened in 2013 with Finca Valpiedra. In other words, the true estate processor has no ‘plan b’.
The Finca Antigua varietals go a step further and each wine comes from a specific plot, so we are dealing with a collection of plot wines.
This concept of viticulture taken to the extreme is represented at Finca Antigua by our great wine, Clavis.made exclusively with grapes from the Pico Garbanzo plot, just four hectares planted on an atypical in the area calcareous clay soil and with a bunch of varieties planted in a disorderly way (Grenache, Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Mazuelo…) that develop in extreme conditions, with temperatures of 35 degrees in summer and 15 degrees below zero in winter. Clavis will ‘die’ when the vines themselves do, subjected year after year to significant stress due to the extreme conditions of the plot, simply because there are not and there will not be replantings to respect as much as possible a differential terroir such as this one.
Balsamic and intensely aromatic we recommend enjoying this wine in a slow and relaxed manner, due to its continuous changing evolution in the glass.The current vintage on the market (2006) already offers a fully rounded wine, which can also be enjoyed over the years due to its great cellaring capacity.
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