Daterra Viticultores ‘Casas de Enriba’ Tinto 2019

Location: Spain, Ribeira Sacra

Winemaker: Laura Lorenzo

Grapes: Mencía, Godello

From the Importer José Pastor Selections: Laura Lorenzo was the winemaker and viticulturist at an established Ribeira Sacra estate for close to a decade. In 2014, she struck out on her own with her project Daterra Viticultores, and now works about 4.5 hectares organically in the Val do Bibei-Quiroga subzone of Ribeira Sacra, and with this wine she extends her reach into Valdeorras to the southeast with the 2015 vintage. Through her meticulous work in the vineyard, Laura’s goal is to cultivate life in her soils that were once damaged by industrial viticulture, and to bring harmony to her vineyards and grapes. In the winery, Laura lets the grapes speak for themselves - fermenting with wild yeasts, utilizing older wooden casks for fermentation and elevage, and adding only small amounts of SO2 during the winemaking process, with no clarification, filtration, or adjustments to the wines.

Casas de Enriba comes from Laura's own two south-facing parcels of young Mencía on granite with a mix of gravel, clay, gneiss, quartz, etc. The grapes are hand-harvested 2 weeks earlier than her Bibei vineyards for added acidity, partially destemmed and fermented with wild yeasts in used 500L French oak barrels, with only 4 days of skin maceration. The wine is then raised in the same barrels for 10 months and bottled without fining or filtration.