ELEVAGE® Bernabeleva – 6058413064351

Vinification takes place in wooden tanks with a percentage of stems that depends on the vintage. The wine is trodden daily, either by foot or with the rammer. Malolactic fermentation takes place in French oak barriques that range from 225 to 600 liters, where the wine remains as long as necessary, always over 11 months.

Where to start? This is inspiring Garnacha. Garnacha for Grenache haters. Garnacha for lovers of Burgundy or traditional Barolo, perhaps. Hailing from a high elevation (1100 meters at its height) vineyard of decomposed granite located an hour and a half or so west of Madrid (in fact, many Madrileños vacation here to avoid the sweltering summer heat), this wine is so bright, so high toned and pretty, intensely flavored yet precise (no baby fat here) that you may want to guzzle it down now with a nice meal, even though the structure is likely there to improve in bottle for at least a decade, probably longer. Young winemaker Marc Isart likes to call this “his Chambolle” given the wine’s beautiful aromatics and delicacy. A random listing of other interesting facts about the wine: minimal top soil in the north facing vineyards, use of demi-muids and foudres, some whole cluster fermentation & only naturally occurring sulfites. I’ll take this over 99.99% of Châteauneuf du Pape – maybe even Rayas.