Hello and welcome to Wines from Castilla La Mancha

Today we are in a winery from la Roda (Albacete)Spain

Wine from Tierra de Castilla. Surely one of the best wineries in Castilla La Mancha

And we have with us winery owner Tomás Ruiz

Hello Ramón, How are you?. He is going to tell us a litte about the winery and his wines.

Ok, Tell us something about the winery

The winery is an old project

Our family started the last century, more than 100 years

with vinification and winemaking professionals

My grandfather owned a winery

And in 1994 I started with the new project

With the plantation of “espaldera” vineyards

And How many hectares of vineyards?

we currenly have 70 hectares

Exclusively for our own production. we test existing

and foreign varieties

And at the end We have decided. What are the varieties are you planting?

We have tried with many varieties and at the end we are planting

11 different varieties. 5 red and 6 white varieties

Of course we have tempranillo typical of this area

And then we have merlot, Syrah, Cabernet

And petit Verdot which is adapting very well to this soil

And among the whites varieties we are a little bit innovative

A part from Chardonnay which is well know all around the world

We did some testing and right now we have viognier

Moscatel de grano menudo

And even we have something really interesting with albariño

which is something new in this area and we have some wine bottled with albariño.

And the gewürztraminer which is one the wines we are going to taste later on

Yes, we started experimenting in 2000

And this year we already have some in bottle, we have decided that has good quality

to be commercialized

ok, let´s talk about two of your products

we are going to taste, as we said, your Gewúrztraminer 2008

And also a 2004 Syrah with three months in oak

Both wines as you can see are named 1564

I would like you to tell me the story about this name

as we are an innovative winery and we want to do different things

in the name of the wines we are trying to be original

1564 has something to do with la Roda as a land of vineyards

Then 1564 indicate the year when the church of La Roda was built

And from that, I like the name a lot

With a nod to history and the village where the wine is coming from

Let´s try the first one

The gewúrztraminer.

2008 vintage

100% gewúrztraminer

We have launched this prodcut this year

This is a wine powerful in aromas, powerful wine in the mouth

If you notice the color of the wine, is typical gewúrztraminer yellow straw color

greenish…clean

This is a very aromatic wine

On the nose….floral aromas

Pineaple…ok…very good…violet

And the main aroma from Gewurztraminer: fresh lychee fruit

Let´s see in the mouth

In the mounth express the fruit…meaty fruit

floral as well. Very long finish

Really good. 13.5%

And as we has said, you only have vino de la tierra de Castilla

You are not under any Denomination of Origin

Once you let the wine breathe to ‘open’ , new aromas and tones are coming up

this wine goes well with fish and seafood

and I would also recommend it with

mushrooms

And it goes well with foie as well.

this can go with a lot of food. i think is a wine to be drunk with food

this is a very interesting wine as this variety can barely be found in Spain

I have seen some people planting it in somontano

Here we did some testings and i think the wine is really good

Let´s see the red one

2004 syrah

crianza wine

Silver medal concourses mondial de Bruxelles 2006

In recognition to the planting of this variety in this area…it´s been years

This is one of the first varieties we planted

some people say that one of the best Syrah can be found in Castilla La Mancha region

Tell me…As you see this wine is dark red

purplish…and the oak is giving different tones of red

2004 vintage

this wine has a “half Crianza”. This is not the same crianza than those of the Denomination of origin

We like wines with a beautiful integration of wood

Toasty notes, vanilla

if you smell

red fruit and blackcurrant

smoky and vanilla aromas

you told me that this wine has three month in oak

we keep the wine in oak…and we taste it

in order to find the perfect balance between fruit and oak

so,periodically, depending on the wine, we taste it

and when we think is the right moment…for that balance

This is the characteristic that we are looking for our wines

A wine that improves with age.

Adn this one still is..

On the nose almost the same…long finish

Silky, full bodied

Long finish…

As you said before…rainsins and liquorice

All of our wines have liquorice

i think is coming from the terroir

liquorice always appears in our wines

let´s summarize your range

what the consumer can find in the market

We have tasted these two, but you has also monovarietal range

yes, we have a monovarietal range

As all of our wine are coming form our own production we have

Our range starts with monovaritals

young wines no oak, we Tempranillo, Cabernet

and some of them have been awarded too

I think merlot is one of them

Yes, merlot is golden medal Brussels 2008

And the Syrah won the best value red new wave Spanish wine awards 2006

yes, indeed

A blind tasting of 700 Spanish wines chosing the best 100

And then is one winner in each category

And your Syrah won the best value red in the Uk. The judges were wine experts and Masters of Wine

then we have the top range. wine with crianza, oak. we have tasted one of them.

A Syrah. We also have a coupage, French, American and Romanian oak

This is what we normally do with our coupage

we also have a Petit Verdot

Named Xintros…this one over here

Also awarded with international medal

And, do you also have Ice wine?

let me tell you before that

That we also have a barrel fermentation white

Viognier, Chardonnay, Albariño coupage

Fermented in French oak

And as your were saying

Ice wine. Made from tempranillo grapes

we pcik up the grapes in December

The grapes are left on the vine to ripen and raisin

And we pick up the grapes by hand and with a special frementation

controling the temperature

avoiding high temperatures and then we stop the fermentation

leaving some sugar

The wine has a typical tone of tempranillo raisin grape

with a sweet background

This wine goes well with starters

As I was telling you with the gewúrztraminer, goes well with foie and mushrooms

Very interesting products

working with “non-Castilla La Mancha” varieties

And even with varieties that nobody else in this region is planting at the moment

Thank you for letting us share this moment with you at your winery

Thank you for visiting us

I hope the audience will enjoy. Congratulations on your products…i like them very much

Thank you very much

www.bodegasolcaviana.com