Dominio de Es - La Carravilla 2024 [en primeur]

Druvor

98% Tempranillo & 2% Albillo

Tasting note

Tasted as a very young barrel sample, the 2024 Carravilla comes from a south-facing plot on pure limestone soils with silt and sand in the village of Atauta, 0.27 hectares of vines at 935 meters in altitude that have been worked biodynamically since 2011. This year, it yielded 98% Tempranillo and only 2% Albillo, which fermented destemmed in oak vat with indigenous yeasts, had a 49-day maceration and has matured in two used Burgundian barrels since December 2024. I love the subtle aromatic profile, shy and reticent but super elegant and nuanced. This is the year when the wine shows the cooler profile of the vineyard. It has ripeness but also fantastic balance, and even if it's the one with the higher alcohol, it's only 13.77%. It reflects the light and the high content of limestone in the vineyard. It's still very young but looks really promising, and it could be the surprise of the year. He expects to bottle around 600 bottles at the end of the élevage. Bottling should not be until at least June 2026, depending on how the wines developed in the cooler cellar.

Dominio de ES is the personal project from Bertrand Sourdais from Antídoto and Galia Soriana. He has finally built his own winery and cellar in the village of San Esteban de Gormaz, in a building in the village where he has dug 10 meters down to have natural temperature and humidity and a capacity of 30,000 bottles (he's currently making some 10,000). They should vinify 2025 in this new winery. 

I tasted two vintages, 2023 and 2024, both still unbottled. The 2023s were very gentle earlier on, but they developed more electricity and make you salivate more. The 2024s are more tender and more ethereal, but for some reason, the acidity dropped quite a lot during the fermentation and malolactic; they have precipitated more tartaric (they found it in the vats) than ever. Bertrand even says he finds some dilution in the 2024s... But in some wines, I think I will prefer the 2024 (Carravilla and La Diva) and in others the 2023... It's still a little too early for the 2024s; some were difficult to read, and even the 2023s showed too young.

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Robert Parker Wine Advocate

« Carravilla is a singular place belonging, originally, to the disappeared town of Golbán, close to Atauta.

Only 0.2 of its total 0.9Ha make up our exceptional plot that, in the purest Grand Cru style, has always shown its particular aptitudes and has revealed itself as a unique terroir. And so we have understood and interpreted it.

Calcareous deposits slide down the slope and accumulate right at the bottom of the mountain. The south facing orientation combines with the freshness and moisture provided by the foot of the slope. White earth with calcareous stones and just above rows of poplars and the old orchards that reflect a contribution of deep humidity, just as in the plots of La Diva and La Mata.

It happens to be a different Tempranillo clone, being more vigorous and giving bigger leaves than what we usually see in the classic Tempranillo of Dominio de Es. The character of Carravilla is deeply influenced by the contribution of the limestone, which echoes in all aspects of a wine captivated by this terroir. A wild, prehistoric spot. A diamond in the rough. »

Bertrand Sourdais

Technical sheet