Sierra de Tolono Rioja

High up in the foothills of the Sierra de Toloño, in Rioja Alavesa, Sandra Bravo works in some of the oldest, and highest altitude vineyards in Rioja, growing Garnacha, Tempranillo, Viura and some Graciano. In her small winery in Villabuena de Álava, where she works with steel, anforas, and old wood, this young winemaker translates the mountainous landscape into pure and expressive wines. The mountains of Sierra de Toloño, with their clay and limestone rocky-soils, are perfect conditions to grow Tempranillo. This is Sandra Bravo's "workhorse", the wine that points the way to some of the most elegant expressions of Rioja Alavessa we've encountered. Harvested by hand, mid-October, the wine ferments spontaneously and then ages for 8 months in neutral barrels, and a little bit in amphorae. It is bottled unfiltered and unfined. Spicy, textured, and mineral.