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Dominio del Challao - Virna 2023

Name: Dominio del Challao - Virna 2023
Price: 249 SEK
Availability: InStock
Rating: 93 (1 reviews)

Rött vin från Rioja Spanien

« Dominio del Challao är ett projekt av Manu Michelini, en vinodlare med sin familj i Argentina, Uruguay och Spanien tillsammans med Carlos Fernandez, en producent och vinodlare sedan generationer brett rotad i sitt familjeprojekt. Staden Labastida, i La Rioja, är det som inspirerar dem att göra eleganta, komplexa och långvariga viner. Där samlar de fem ägda tomter som utgör 6 hektar 100% biodynamiska vingårdar odlade med djurdragkraft. »

	Per flaska:	Per låda:
Pris	249kr	1494kr

Antal flaskor per låda: 6

Distrikt	Rioja
Druvor	Garnacha , Tempranillo , Malvasía
Årgång	2023
Procucenter	Dominio del Challao
Artikelnr	Challao 102
Beställningssortiment
Lagerstatus
Fraktkostnad	169:-
Avnjutes mellan	2026 - 2033

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Här redovisar och presenterar vi kända vinskribenters utlåtande om specifika viner. Utöver dessa lägger vi in en egen kommentar när vi har provat samma vin.

93/100

The super aromatic and floral red 2023 Virna is a different blend, 50% Garnacha and 50% Tempranillo, as Tempranillo suffered more in 2023 and had lower yields. The two varieties—from two different vineyards—fermented together, with some 20% full clusters of Garnacha. The picking point is determined by the Tempranillo, so the Garnacha is always super crunchy—perhaps one week away from full ripeness—and that adds very bright aromas, white flowers even, and very bright berries, such as cassis, a little wild and very expressive. The second vineyard that was added has less limestone, but it delivers more aromatic and sexy wines. The aromatics are stunning, a little Jura, if you like, with the distances, obviously, with some spiciness. After it fermented at its own pace and without controlling temperatures, it had a long maceration, keeping the cap wet but not doing any extraction, perhaps one and a half months of maceration. Then it matured in foudres and 225- and 500-liter barriques, whatever is available. It's fine-boned, medium-bodied and elegant, with very fine, chalky tannins and very spicy in the finish. It's simply delicious. This also had a longer aging, close to 29 months in wood. 14,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2026. The wine is very harmonious.

Druvor

50% Garnacha & 50% Tempranillo

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

Rioja är utan tvekan den mest kända vinregionen i Spanien, men regionen är allt annat än homogen. De tre underregionerna – Rioja Alavesa, Rioja Oriental och Rioja Alta – skiljer sig enormt åt. Detta vin kommer från den lilla byn Labastida i nordvästra Rioja Alavesa, den minsta och nordligaste underregionen som ligger i spanska Baskien och kännetecknas av kalkrik lera och sandiga jordar. - Hjärnan bakom vingården Dominio del Challao är Manu Michelini, vars familj...

läs mer om Dominio del Challao

Manu Michelini bottled the 2023s later than usual because they stayed for longer in the foudres. The initial idea was a longer élevage, following the Rioja tradition, and he's doing it little by little. In 2023, he managed to have the wines in foudre for 29 months. And in 2027, he will release a red wine from 2021, the Challao from the whiter soils of the Challao vineyard—which, since 2023, are bottled separately and only two barrels have been in the cellar since then.

For him, 2023 was an improvement over 2022, warm and dry, but not that dry and not extremely warm, so the wines from 2023 have more acidity and red fruit and are very aromatic and elegant. There were two events of rain in July and late August that changed things: the temperatures cooled down and the plants didn't burn acid. In 2024, there was more rain, with a lot of rain from September onward, the same as in 2025, two more Atlantic vintages. In 2025, the alcohol levels are extremely low; the highest is the white with 12.8%!

Since December 2024, he has been in a new place in Laguardia, so all the 2023s were already bottled there, and the 2024s were fermented there. The vineyards are the same as in previous years. As a side note, he's making a wine in Burgundy with the guys from Simon Bize, a Savigny-Les-Beaunes from 2025!

Robert Parker Wine Advocate