Oxer - Kalamity 2022

Druvor

48% Tempranillo, 48% Garnacha, 2% Viura, & 2% Garnacha Blanca

Tasting note

[vintage 2020]

The 2020 Kalamity is Bastegieta's favorite vintage because of the floweriness and the quality of the tannins. There's a lot of precision here. The vines have been detoxed through years of working organically, so the soils have recovered from years of herbicide. 2020 and 2021 were challenging years because of the pandemic, but qualitatively, in Rioja they are excellent years. All wines ferment with indigenous yeasts, and in this case, the wine matured in 600-liter Stockinger oak barrels, which are his favorite for his wines. The wine already starts transmitting freshness from the nose, and the palate is a lot more obvious and makes you salivate. This is super clean, precise like a laser cut, with light and energy, fresher than the majority of Rioja with very fine, silky tannins that give it a beautiful texture with dry, chalky minerality. This is perfumed, elegant, nuanced, layered and beautifully balanced. This is still very young, clean and modern, with stuffing and balance to develop in bottle for a long time. 2,500 bottles produced.

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There are three new reds from Oxer in Rioja, a revamped white and a new wine from a project in Toro. I mainly tasted wines from 2020, a vintage that he likes. They are floral and mineral with good acidity and moderate alcohol, which Bastegieta defines as a very elegant year, with similar acidity to 2018. In fact, the wines follow the line of the 2018 but are more elegant, with silkier tannins, beautiful textures and vibrant freshness. He feels the work with the soils is helping to fix the pH in the wines; he uses cover crops, because he thinks they give the wines a different structure. He works using organic methods and uses biodynamical preparations, but he doesn't have or seek any kind of certification.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

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• Oxer - Kalamity 2020: 98 points – Wine Advocate
• Oxer - Kalamity 2018: 97 points – Wine Advocate
• Oxer - Kalamity 2017: 95 points – Wine Advocate
• Oxer - Kalamity 2016: 95 points – Wine Advocate
• Oxer - Kalamity 2015: 94 points – Wine Advocate
• Oxer - Kalamity 2014: 93 points – Wine Advocate

DOCa Rioja

Varieties: 50% Tempranillo, 47% Garnacha, 2% Viura, 1% Garnacha Blanca

Production: 1.200 bottles

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KALAMITY was first made from the 2014 vintage and released in 2016. The idea is to bring together various grape varieties and different subregions (Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa) in one wine.

Vineyards

A vineyard of 3ha located in Cárdenas (Rioja Alta) at 580 metres altitude, dating back to 1903. Iron-rich clay soil.
A 96 year old vineyard of 1 ha located in Elvillar (Rioja Alavesa) at 600 metres altitude. Calcareous clay soil.

Winemaking

The best grapes from each plot are selected and vinified separately in 500 litre French oak barrels, using indigenous yeasts. After 12 months of ageing the blend is being decided.

Character

Kalamity shows an array of aroma´s, from red fruit to animal notes and from violets to truffle. These aroma´s will develop into even more complexity in the coming years. A wine with enormous length and minerality. 

What's in a name

The eye-catching name and label express Oxer´s love for Shakespeare. ¨Honi soit qui mal y pense¨ (Shame be to him who thinks evil of it) comes from the play ´The Reign of King Edward the Third´..

Analysis

Alcohol 14%

pH 3,48
Total acidity (in tartaric acid) 6,4 g/l

Acknowledgements

Kalamity 2015: 95 points (Guía Peñin 2019)
Kalamity 2015: 94 points (Robert Parker 2018)
Kalamity 2015: 95 points - Tim Atkin MW Rioja 2018 Special Report
Kalamity 2014: 93 points (Robert Parker 2016)
Kalamity 2014: 92 points - Tim Atkin MW Rioja 2017 Special Report
Kalamity 2014: 93 points – James Suckling 2016