2016 Finca Sandoval El Fundamentalista

Finca Sandoval is a small winery located in Ledaña which is located in Cuenca (Southeast Spain). The winery was created in 1998 when Victor de la Serna, an experienced journalist and oenologist Rafael Orozco, decided to produce wine in this particularly beautiful location. They started with Syrah and Touriga Nacional grapes in new vineyards. When that started to take over they took over older vineyards and started to grow the best local red grapes here (bobal, monastrell, garnacha tinta, garnacha tintorera, moravia agria). At the moment they own 26 ha in Ledaña and in Manchuela. The vineyards, which are certified as organic, are at a reasonable height (around 1km) and grow on limestone, the oldest vines dating from 1939, 1942 and 1960.

The grapes are harvested manually when the wood is optimally ripe (brown colored stems and nut-tasting seeds). Lightly bruised and destemmed and a long, cold soak before fermentation starts including pigeage (crushing the grape cake). During fermentation, the wine is transferred to oak barrels for the follow-up and the apple-malt fermentation with stirring of the fine yeast spores. The vinification process takes 18 to 20 days. A third new wood: Vosges and Allier and some new barrels from the French Tonnelier Demptos, but made of American oak.