Dominio del Challao - Angelita del Challao 2021

Druvor

Tempranillo 85%, Garnacha 10%, Malvasia, Viura, Garnacha Blanca, Graciano

Tasting note

The 2021 Angelita del Challao, the red village wine from Labastida, comes from the vineyards in the lower part of the village on deeper soils with more clay, and it still has a moderate 12.7% alcohol and great freshness (denoted by a pH of 3.4), balance and elegance. They have included one more vineyard in this cool year, a plot that was contributing to Challao before. All of the reds ferment with a portion of stems (the Tempranillo never more than 20%), all the plots separately and aged separately for one year, then they blend the wine and put it back in the barrels of different sizes and foudre to complete some 20 months. This is a nice blending exercise, with a little more volume and juiciness but still a mineral, serious, chalky mouthfeel. It's smoky and showy, with darker fruit than the rest of the reds. It's approximately 80% Tempranillo and the rest Garnacha, Mazuelo, Viura, Garnacha Blanca and other mixed varieties. 21,581 bottles and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in November 2023.

I met a little earlier with Manuel "Manu" Michelini to taste the new vintage from his personal project in Labastida, Dominio del Challao, before he went to Argentina for Christmas, summer holidays (it's the Southern Hemisphere, folks!) and the harvest there. I was still tasting other regions, so these were the first Rioja wines I tasted. All were 2021s except the new white, which was from 2020. Production is 35,000 bottles. 

In 2022, he stopped buying grapes, but he rents vineyards that he works with his partner Carlos Fernández from Bodegas Tierra. As in many other regions, 2021 was a very good vintage in Rioja. These are beautiful, serious, mineral and elegant wines—a modern view of the wines from the past.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate