Ana Carazo "La Loba" 2019 Tempranillo Matanza de Soria, Ribera del Duero

750ml bottle

14% abv

"It’s a dark Tempranillo - full of fresh black fruit, violets and an inky-graphite streak. On the palate it’s smooth, rich, and lifted, with great structure and length."

100% Tempranillo

Aging: 9 months in used French oak and 1 year in bottle

Vineyard: Organic in practice

Production: 6,960 bottles

Grapes: 100% Tempranillo from organic, recuperated 100-year-old vines in the high elevation (900-1,000 meters) eastern edge of Ribera del Duero.

Soils/Climate: Soils are a combination of sand, gravel, and clay with a high concentration of sand contributing to the native rootstock’s ability to evade phylloxera. 2019 was a dry and mild year. The lack of rainfall until the beginning of spring delayed initial fruit set, but allowed for a long and even development.

Viticulture: Organic in practice. 2.5 hectares manually harvested by friends and family.

Winemaking: Spontaneous fermentation and gentle racking by gravity. Aged for 9 months in used 225L French oak barrels and aged an additional year in bottle prior to release.

Background: La Loba wine originates in the small village of Matanza de Soria in a cooler area just inside the border of the DO Ribera del Duero. Owner, winemaker, and viticulturist, Ana Carazo farms small vineyards of recovered (mostly pre-phylloxera) 100-year-old Tempranillo vines. At 900- 1,000 meters above sea level, Ana’s vineyards are influenced by long, cold winters, moderate rainfall, occasional late spring frosts, and summers with cool nights. Viticulture and harvest are entirely manual and carried out by Ana with the help of her friends and family.

Ana Carazo is one of Ribera del Duero’s most exciting, up-and-coming young producers.

When you meet her you can’t help but be taken in by her infectious energy and absolute passion for what she does.

And where Ana makes wine, you need these qualities in spades.

La Loba means The Wolf in Spanish. This was Ana’s grandmother’s nickname, and on the label you’ll see her sitting outside the door of her house in the village.

Ana sources the grapes from tiny vineyard plots around this village, Matanza de Soria. They are all 100+ years old, on a variety of aspects and soils, and farmed organically.

Ana manages 90 to 100 of these tiny plots separately - and combines them to make this wine. It’s painstaking, nonsensical work… but inspiring, especially when you taste her wine.

She employs a very hands-off winemaking style - she wants the fruit to do the talking. ‘La Loba always speaks’ she tells me.

It’s a dark Tempranillo - full of fresh black fruit, violets and an inky-graphite streak. On the palate it’s smooth, rich, and lifted, with great structure and length.

This is an intensely personal project for Ana, and she pours her heart and passion into every single bottle.