Viña El Pison 2012 75cl

A worthy follower of the 2010, the 2012 Viña El Pisón is the more aromatic of all the single-vineyard bottlings. It opens to showy aromas of violets and Asian spices like the Riojan version of a Chambolle-Musigny or Vosne-Romanée. The nose is very spicy, ripe and heady with open and expressive aromas of baked croissants, Morello cherries, herbal tea, aromatic herbs and balsamic notes that are remarkably complex for its age. The palate has volume and it seems to grow inside your mouth as it warms up. The persistence is remarkable, the wine stays in your tongue forever and is much more gentle than El Carretil, with great structure and an extra degree of silkiness. El Pisón is clearly a more complete, a more complex wine. A word class Rioja. 6,000 bottles produced. 2012 seems to be e very good vintage for Artadi, ripe and powerful, but with very well-integrated oak, serious wines. For the three wineries they have (Artadi in Rioja, Artazu in Navarra and El Sequé in Alicante), proprietor Juan Carlos López de Lacalle wants to simplify the range of wines, first an entry-level line of local varietal wines, Tempranillo, Garnacha and Monastrell, (Tempranillo by Artadi). The second line is village wines (so Viñas de Gaín will disappear as a brand and will be turned into Viñas de Laguadia, Viñas de Leza and Viñas de Elvillar in future vintages, and Pagos Viejos will be turned into a special collector's items) and then single-vineyard wines. In Alicante and Navarra they don't have single-vineyard wines for now, while for Artadi they will continue with the four they offer now. This change will be for the 2014 harvest. Tasting them slowly I came to the conclusion that, following the Burgundian model, the hierarchy of the single vineyards is as follows: El Pisón and El Carretil would be the Grand Crus and Valdeginés and La Poza de Ballesteros would be the 1er Crus. And the big news is, of course, that they are leaving the Rioja appellation before the end of 2015!