Hot Damn: 2009 Señorío de P. Peciña Gran Reserva Rioja
Posted on: 04/9/19 6:24 PM
Welcome back, old friend. Hermanos Peciña, one the pillars of our Spanish program, has released their triumphant 2009 Gran Reserva. This is only the third Gran Reserva the estate has released since 1998 and just like those other special bottles, the 2009 effortlessly displays why we love traditional old school Rioja – a multidimensional bouquet only ten years of aging could accomplish, creamy red fruits and earthy dark flavors, all resting on sublime layers of soft, mineral textures. For old school Rioja fans, this is a monumental value.
2009 Señorío de P. Peciña Gran Reserva Rioja
“There is one more exceptional red with an extended aging in barrel that was only produced in 1998, 2001 and 2003, and now in this 2009 Señorío de P. Peciña Gran Reserva. It is the usual Tempranillo with 3% Garnacha and 2% Graciano, but in this case from 50-year-old vines from their Finca Iscorta vineyard in the Sonsierra zone. The wine is aged in well-seasoned American oak barrels for four years with manual and gravity racking twice per year. If the nose could somehow remind you of the 2009 Reserva, this is more open and aromatic, more nuanced, and the palate also shows a level of complexity and refinement that makes it much more enjoyable, with polished tannins and great length. While it’s not a wimp, it doesn’t overload your senses. A great and classical Gran Reserva.” 94 Points, Wine Advocate
More About the Wine
In the heart of Rioja Alta, set against the stone peaks of the Sierra Cantabria and the banks of the Ebro river is a small little piece of land well known for growing excellent Tempranillo. They call this area Sonsierra and it is where the wines of Peciña are born.
Founded in 1992 by Pedro Peciña Crespo, fans of the great and noble house La Rioja Alta will recognize a similar quality in the Mr. Crespo’s wines. There is a reason for that – Mr. Crespo spent twenty years as vineyard manager at La Rioja Alta. And although they are two different entities, Peciña and Alta cast the same mesmerizing spell that only soulful old school Rioja can do.
In the winery and in the vineyard Mr.Crespo insists on doing things without any technological shortcuts. All the fruit is handpicked, hand sorted and moved through the winery in the gentlest way possible–by gravity. There is never any inoculation of yeasts, nor any addition of enzymes or nutrients. This is a testament to Mr. Crespo’s trust and faith (and for that matter, confidence) in the quality of his vineyards and the healthy fruit it yields. All his wines undergo malic fermentation (again this is not hurried by inoculation). Perhaps one of the biggest factors that separates Mr. Crespo’s work from other new-school Rioja is his traditional trasiego system. Every 6 months the wine is manually racked by means of gravity and decanting from barrel to barrel–without agitation or pumping– thus separating the clarified wine from the lees and respecting the wines character in full. This is an extremely costly and time consuming, method requiring far more time than a mechanical system. But the proof is in the pudding here. Mr. Crespo’s wines, unlike many who use shortcuts, fill full, not stripped, and more importantly, have soul.
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