2018 Pujanza Norte
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Tasting this alongside López de Heredia’s 2010 Tondonia Tinto Reserva makes for a particularly striking contrast – showing the modern and traditional faces of Rioja today. Norte is the top wine from Bodegas Pujanza, an estate crafting modish Rioja. Norte is a single vineyard at 720 metres in Rioja Alavesa – an area that is producing some of the region’s most exciting wines. The 2018 – a cool and classically styled vintage – has produced a wine of beautiful purity and perfume. The nose entices with bramble fruit and spice, but there’s a juicy brightness to the wine that speaks of tis high-altitude site, with incredible vibrancy and chalky, layered tannins that complement the crystalline cherry, raspberry and blackberry fruit. 14.5% alcohol is handled with ease – seamlessly integrated. Lively with pepper spice and violet florals, this is long and utterly alluring. Fermented in stainless steel, the oak has been toned down this year – with 12 months in French barrique (none of which was new, and another eight months in concrete.
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Julie Sheppard, Decanter
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
Altre recensioni e punteggi
Based in Laguardia, Pujanza produces an accomplished range of Riojas based on single vineyard sites. Norte is the winery's highest site, planted at 720m on clay and limestone soils, producing a fresh and lifted Rioja, with show-stopping elegance. Beautiful purity of fruit: cherries, strawberry, plum and some cranberry crunch. Aged for 12 months in French oak and then eight months in concrete, the palate is poised and expressive, with fine tannins. A winning interpretation of a single terroir.
100% Tempranillo from single plot at 720 m above sea level in Laguardia. Spontaneous alcoholic fermentation and malolactic conversion in stainless-steel vats. Aged in French oak barrels for 12 months, then 8 months in concrete vats. 11,000 bottles. Tasted blind. Quite generous in fruit and concentration, and well-judged wood. Tannins with sweetness and balanced with freshness. Quite full of vibrant fruit. Very good use of oak, present and elegant. Lots of juiciness and quality of fruit in a powerful rioja style. (FC)
I was really looking forward to the 2018 Norte, the top-of-the-range red from a north-facing plot in Laguardia at some 720 meters in altitude, from a vintage with similarities to the 2016 I love. The wine has a rare combination of power and elegance, of ripeness and freshness that denotes a special place. Like the rest of reds, it fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel, with malolactic in those same containers followed by 12 months in French oak barrels (slightly less than in the past) and eight months in concrete. I caught this wine in a slightly awkward moment; the oak was quite noticeable and there was a bit of volatility. It was bottled later because of COVID-19, so it had been bottled a couple of weeks before I tasted it. In any case, San Pedro didn't use any new oak in this wine or, as a matter of fact, in any of the other wines, and the time in barrel was also shortened in this wine. The palate has the balance, the freshness and the depth to overcome this, and I'm sure this wine is going to bloom with a little more time in bottle. The wine is not a powerhouse; this is a more delicate year. With a couple of hours in the glass, the wine shows a lot more poise and harmony, which only reinforced my beliefs. 11,000 bottles produced. It will be released in April 2021. Every year this wine is released in April.