Sierra de Tolono Rioja La Dula Garnacha de Altura 2022

Sierra de Tolono Rioja La Dula Garnacha de Altura 2022

Sierra de Tolono
$30.00

Grape: Garnacha
Vintage: 2022
Type: Red

This low-intervention red wine is a pure varietal bottling of garnacha that has become Sandra Bravo's signature signature release. Sourced from ancient bush vines over eighty years old, the fruit grows on clay-limestone soils near Rivas de Tereso at six-hundred and fifty meters elevation. The winemaking features a completely spontaneous native fermentation driven entirely by wild vineyard yeasts inside old neutral wood foudres. The liquid completes its maturation through an extended aging period inside traditional clay amphorae.

It pours a translucent ruby color, opening with high-toned, elegant aromas of wild raspberry, tart red cherry, and field flowers under marked Atlantic influences. A light-to-medium-bodied frame is fluid and energetic, focusing on an unmanipulated fruit presentation. Soft, fine-grained tannins integrate smoothly with a clean line of mountain acidity that keeps the mouthfeel refreshed. Savory underscores of wet stone add depth across the fluid core. It finishes dry, long, and polished.

Sierra de Tolono is Sandra Bravo's Rioja Alavesa project, based in the high, limestone-rich foothills below the Sierra de Cantabria. After working in several regions, Bravo returned to make wines that express the cooler, more Atlantic side of Rioja through old vines, organic farming and parcel selection around villages such as Rivas de Tereso. Her cellar work avoids the heavy oak signatures associated with classic Rioja, favoring native fermentations, concrete, amphora and used wood. The wines are fresh, floral and precise, built around Tempranillo, Garnacha, Viura and the mountain wind that preserves acidity in this part of the region.