With grapes from a plot planted more than 55 years ago in the municipality of Laguardia (Álava), this Rioja red wine with a modern conception is born, with the obsession of focusing all efforts on expressing the fruit of Tempranillo and the character of its terroir, with a calcareous clay soil with a sandy-ferrous vein. It is a soil that is only 35 centimeters deep. The yield is 2.3 tons per hectare (12 hectoliters per hectare). Ysios states that it aims to "respect the purity of each grain as much as possible and reflect artisanal work from the vineyard."
The winemaker, Clara Canals, adds that it is “craft applied to wine.” She also explains that “making this wine in a choral way is a nice way for all of us, the workers and our families, to come together.” And until the vinification of the 2023 vintage, it has been the dozen workers of this winery and their families who have manually shelled and literally stepped on the Grain to Grain grapes with their feet. For Clara Canals it is “purity, honesty, frankness and minimal intervention.” The winemaker highlights that “it is a limited production wine with a very beautiful story behind it, and made with a lot of care and love.” The first vintage was 2016.
All of their grapes are harvested by hand in small 10 kilo perforated boxes in a single day, and are refrigerated before being processed in the winery. The clusters are manually shelled grain by grain, carefully to discard leaves, raisined berries or those affected by fungi. After separating the best beans from the stalks, a task in which clients, sommeliers, restaurateurs and journalists have participated for the first time this year, they are stamped with their feet inside used barrels (two to four years) of fine-grained, medium-toasted French oak, with a capacity of 225 liters. Not all grapes are crushed, which makes it easier for intracellular maceration to occur in unstepped berries (partial carbonic maceration).
The alcoholic fermentation is spontaneous, with indigenous yeasts, without controlled temperature and with daily bazuqueos to sink the hat. Both malolactic fermentation and aging that lasts for 12 months are also carried out in French barrels. It is a minimal intervention red wine. Some sulfur is not added until after malolactic fermentation, and it is corrected before bottling with SO2 if it is considered necessary. A total of 1,100 three-quarter liter bottles were produced from this vintage.
From this imposing winery in Laguardia they say that it exhibits a “bright, fresh and honest aroma of a perfectly ripe Tempranillo, with an intense aroma of cherry, strawberry and plum. Splendid purity and depth.” It has a medium-high layer, and a beautiful and intense cherry color. Even the tears that descend attached to the wall of the glass are slightly tinted. It stands out for its ripe but fresh fruit, and its stylistic roundness. The red and black berries stand out in a milky bed with perceptible touches of vanilla and cedar, spices and lots of licorice. It also shows notes of garrigue (especially rosemary), Cuban tobacco leaf and a somewhat metallic mineral tip (pencil tip). The wood is very well integrated, and so is its 15º alcohol. At the same time, its tannins are very well polymerized. Youth with a certain complexity and good acidity.
They recommend serving it at a temperature between 14º and 17º C. Winemaker Clara Canals believes that it pairs “with many dishes.” She prefers to accompany it with some suckling lamb chops with vine shoots accompanied by roasted peppers “and little else.” It is also a good ally for any meat, for a risotto with mushrooms or for poultry cannelloni.
Looking to the future, winemaker Clara Canals, who is concerned about the effects of climate change, states that the challenge is to maintain good acidities without raising the alcohol level. They work following the dictates of regenerative agriculture, leaving vegetal covers. Their vineyards are not certified as organic, but they do follow ecological work, from the practice of sexual confusion with pheromone traps to combat the plague of the cluster moth to the non-use of herbicides or pesticides. His own vineyard, of 6.5 hectares, is the one that surrounds his winery. They have 42 hectares, which eight trusted suppliers work with, with whom they have long-term contracts and whom they tutor. They make about 90,000 bottles annually, of which they export only 10%. The United Kingdom, the United States and the Nordic countries are its most prominent international markets.
The name of Bodegas Ysios is a tribute to the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris. It is located in the heart of Rioja Alavesa, at the foot of the majestic Sierra Cantabria. They claim to work with an avant-garde concept in winemaking. They also define themselves as “an avant-garde boutique winery.” It is part of the Pernod Ricard group. The iconic winery, an elongated nave designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, was built between 1998 and 2001. The undulating roof imitates the profile of the Sierra Cantabria. There are 8,000 m2 of construction on the Hoya de Laguardia road, one of the most beautiful towns in Spain. The capital of Rioja Alavesa became part of the Most Beautiful Towns in Spain association in 2016 as the only town in the Basque Country.
