{"product_id":"lopez-de-heredia-rioja-crianza-vina-cubillo-2018","title":"R. López de Heredia Viña Cubillo Crianza 2018","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCrianza is the bottom rung of the Rioja aging ladder, the category built for wines meant to be drunk young. López de Heredia releases its Crianza after roughly nine years, which is longer than most Rioja houses hold their Gran Reserva. The fruit comes from Viña Cubillas, a 24-hectare vineyard about four kilometers from the bodega in Haro, at the western, coolest, most Atlantic-influenced end of Rioja Alta. The plantings are 16 hectares of Tempranillo, 4 of Garnacha, 2 of Mazuelo, and 2 of Graciano, farmed as a single unit and picked together. Chalky clay-limestone soils and the Cantabrian rain shadow keep alcohol moderate and acidity high, and the vineyard is worked essentially the way it was a century ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoughly 65% Tempranillo with Garnacha, Graciano, and Mazuelo filling out the rest, in proportion to how the vineyard is planted. Fermentation happens in the estate's old wooden vats, then the wine spends three years or more in used American oak barrels, hand-racked twice a year by gravity, fined with fresh egg whites, and bottled without filtration. The estate coopers its own barrels on site. That combination of long, oxidative, well-seasoned oak aging and no new wood is what produces the flavor profile: dried cherry, orange peel, dill, leather, cured meat, tobacco leaf, and a distinct sweet coconut-vanilla note that comes from old American oak rather than new. Tannins are resolved and the texture is silky. 2018 was cool and wet in Rioja with higher yields and lower alcohol than average, a vintage that rewarded producers making fresh, classically proportioned wine rather than concentrated wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRafael López de Heredia y Landeta founded the bodega in 1877 in Haro's Barrio de la Estación, making it the oldest continuously family-run estate in Rioja. Four generations later the family still runs it, and the method has essentially not changed: estate fruit only, fermentation in wood, extremely long barrel and bottle aging, hand racking, egg-white fining, no filtration, no stainless steel, no new oak, and an on-site cooperage that has been building and repairing barrels since the beginning. The cellars are famously carpeted in decades of black mold. This is not nostalgia as a marketing position; it is the same production sequence the house has run for nearly 150 years, and nobody else in Spain is still doing it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe savory, dried-fruit register wants slow-cooked food. Lamb shoulder roasted with garlic and thyme is the obvious match. Beyond that: roast suckling pig with crackling, mushroom and jamon croquetas, or a plate of aged Manchego with membrillo and marcona almonds. The resolved tannin means it will not fight anything, and the acidity keeps up with fat and salt. It needs no decanting, but pour carefully; the wine is unfiltered and there is sediment.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VinMarket","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51201252098271,"sku":null,"price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P8150107_51d9135c-5e53-4b6b-901c-b2007d93520b.jpg?v=1786842623","url":"https:\/\/denverwinemerchant.com\/products\/lopez-de-heredia-rioja-crianza-vina-cubillo-2018","provider":"Denver Wine Merchant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}