Valdaya Valdaya 2015, Ribera del Duero
A very different and distinctive wine. With fresh and intense red fruit (raspberry and cherries), this wine showed silkiness, elegance, purity of fruit, as well as a specific finesse that immediately set it apart from most of the other Ribera del Duero wines for concentration and power. This very modern wine renders us quite speechless for being so tasty.
This is the wine to build us a better world. Winemakers Marta Ramas and Miguel Fisac studied oenology at Bordeaux University and learnt their trade working in Saint-Emilion and Péssac-Léognan under the guidance of Profeessor Denis Dubourdieu and Professor Stéphane Derenoncourt; hence there is always an air of Bordeaux and fruit purity, with no significant loss of a sense of place. The winemakers also works different vintages in Hawkes Bay, Napa Valley and The Cape in South Africa, eventually brought them back to their homeland of Ribera del Duero to begin work at Valdaya .
We understand this wine is rounded off with micro fermentations(sounds Rolland) in used barrels, with every process carried out by hand, hence the silkiness and elegance. The purity and high quality of fruit is a result of getting the best grapes from the nine best vineyard parcels from the most trusted family growers these two makers would make nine barrels of wine, thereby maintaining the identity of each plot through to the tiny amounts of wine produced in each barrel. Even though the different barrels would be blended to make two cuvees(Valdaya Valdaya and Valdaya Mirum), the process of identifying and learning about the qualities of each vineyard parcel had begun.
The Team likes Valdaya Valdaya better because it is just better drinking. It is the Regional Gold Medal of Decanter, earning a whopping score of Decanter 95. Don't miss this unique Ribera del Duero. Onlt 1600 bottles produced. And 2015 is an excellent vintage as good as 2010, 2005 and 2001.
JS93, his comments are as follows:
VALDAYA RIBERA DEL DUERO 2015. There's a wealth of ripe raspberry compote on the nose with a background of fresh-tilled earth. The palate is plump and juicy with ripe raspberry-flavoured fruit. Great depth and balance. Drink now.