R. Lopez de Heredia Bosconia Reserva 2015 750ml

The 2015 Viña Bosconia Reserva shows a darker color and a riper profile. It was a warm year, and the grapes were picked quite ripe. They struggled a little with the fermentations, and they had different lots and had to play with the blending and the percentages of other vintages that were allowed to be blended in the wine so it would be a more balanced wine with 13.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.3 and 6.7 grams of acidity. It was produced with a blend of 80% Tempranillo, 15% Garnacho and the remaining 5% Graciano and Mazuelo, fermented in old oak vats with their yeasts and matured in those vats and in neutral American oak barrels over seven years. It also has some more rustic tannins, without the silky texture of some of its siblings. 85,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2023.

The Viña Bosconia wines are sourced from a vineyard called El Bosque. Situated next to the river Ebro at an altitude of 465m, it is one kilometer away from the winery. Vines are planted on the south-facing foothills of the Sierra Cantabria range, providing them with the perfect conditions for ripening. The soil is a mixture of clay and limestone, and the average age of the vines is 40 years. El Bosque consists of 15 hectares, 11 of which are Tempranillo, 2 are red Garnacho, 1 hectare of Mazuelo and 1 hectare of Graciano. The Viña Bosconia Reserva is made every year in quantities varying from 20,000 to 48,000 bottles. In general, Viña Bosconia wines are elegant but full-bodied; have a deep colour and good structure, and are wines with great complexity and expression. The Reserva wines are "coupage" wines and not vintage wines; they age for 5 years in American oak barrels, and are hand racked around 10 times before they are released to the market. The Gran Reserva wines are single-vintage and made only made in very exceptional vintages, in small quantities and from selected grapes; the amount produced varies from 5,000 to 15,000 bottles. The wines age in barrel for a minimum of 8 years to a maximum of 10 and some of them are hand racked over 20 times. After being fined with egg white directly in the barrel, they are both bottled and corked by hand, and finally waxed so that the cork is protected when they lie in underground cellars for another 10 years before being released to the market.