Bodegas Martinez Corta 2007

Description
This silky, unoaked Rioja is just the second vintage made at the new cellars of Bodegas Martínez Corta. The family own 60 hectares of vines in prime locations throughout the Rioja Alta - in Uruñuela, Najero and Cenicero - where a drop in temperature at night, even during the Summer months, ensures a useful acidity in the grapes.

The vines of the property are up to 30 years old, at which age they produce only a small amount of fruit, but of particularly good concentration. Laura Manzanos Casellas is the new winemaker. Aged twenty-nine, she studied in Pamplona as an agronomist before taking a Masters in Oenology and Viticulture at Logroño.

Made from purely estate-grown Tempranillo grapes, this wine was fermented at the ultra-modern winery and is full of fruit, untempered by oak. Rioja has enjoyed a number of good to excellent vintages this millennium, particularly in 2001 and 2005. 2007 will be remembered for its large, late snowfall in March, which topped up the water levels.

Trickier was the cool, damp weather May to July, which meant growers had to take enormous care in the vineyards to halt any mildew or yellow spider. Excellent weather from late July until harvest in September/October resulted in well-ripened grapes. Overall, yields were down by 20%, but the grapes are of high quality and, according to our buyer, the wines are of delicious concentration.