Dominio de Es - Viñas Viejas de Soria 2024 [en primeur]

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The very young 2024 Viñas Viejas de Soria has approximately 4% Albillo (less than in 2023) and 0.6% Alicante Bouschet to complement the Tempranillo from 25 plots of vines in the village of Atauta. It has contained ripeness and lower alcohol than the 2023 I tasted next to it. It fermented with 5% full clusters in oak vats of different sizes with indigenous yeasts and has been maturing in 23 Burgundian barrels since the January 15, 2024. They did a softer vinification this year, trying not to extract too much tannin, as the wine has less stuffing than the 2023. It does improve in the glass, which is a good sign, showing significantly better one hour later. The expectation is to produce around 7,000 bottles. He has a cooler cellar with more humidity, so he doesn't know if the élevage is going to be slower and might have to bottle them later.

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.