2020 Bodegas Ateca Atteca Armas Old Vines

Bodegas Ateca is owned by the Gil family, who are world famous for their El Nido and Clio wines, but also have very small beautiful domains where the best of the region is brought out on a very small scale. All these wines are all gems. With Ateca, Shaya and Can Blau, they have great wineries in various regions that only work with indigenous grapes.

Bodega Ateca, 55 hectares in size, was founded in 2005 in the village of the same name. The bodega is located in the province of Zaragoza, fourteen kilometers from Calatayud. De Armas is the top model of Boega Ateca and grapes come from very old vines of Garnacha which are planted on the hills at about 1000 meters above sea level and come from the best plots. Only a limited number of Armas bottles will be available at any time. There are different soil types throughout the region, but the Grenache vineyard mainly consists of poor lime/clay soil with slate. The clay is deep and ensures that the vines can root very deeply and absorb moisture, so even though there is very little rain in the region, these vines can always get moisture (after hard work). The slate provides the unique minerality in this wine. The grapes for the Armas are picked manually with 1st selection in the vineyard and 2nd selection in the bodega. Only the best fruit goes into the topper. After the fermentation process, the wine remains in barriques for 18 months and then the wine is bottle-aged for almost a year before being released on the market.

The Armas Old Vines is full bodied and aromatic but with a surprising freshness which is due to the large differences between day and night at this altitude and this gives acidity and balance. In the nose we smell dark cherry and blackberry. The fruit is ripe but there are spicy and spicy aromas (pepper and nutmeg) as well as the mineral memories of the slate soils of the vineyard. In the mouth it is tasty, fruity and elegant and full bodied. Very good to drink now and shows great potential to improve with time.