Calar Abrego, Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

Description

Calar Abrego is a red wine from the La Mancha wine-growing region of Spain. It is bottled as a Vino de la Tierra de Castilla.

The grapes for Bodegas Calar come from the Finca Montachuelos estate which is located in the municipality of Granatula de Calatrava in the Spanish province of Cuidad Real. There is a record of grape growing and winemaking at the Finca going stretching back over 500 years. Bodegas Calar is a younger project and it a careful juxtaposition of centuries of tradition the latest wine-making technology and techniques. Calar was founded by Juan José Moreno Alarcón in 2005 to produce wines that demonstrate what high quality wines can be made in La Mancha. Juan Jose sadly passed away in 2011 but today the wine-making is in the capable hands of technical director José Carlos García Vega and Argentinian born oenologist (and Malbec specialist!), Luis Raúl Asmet

The location of Finca Montachuelos is something special – the vineyards are planted on the only volcanic derived soils in Spain and are situated on the Campo de Calatrava volcanic field on the banks of the Rio Jabalon. Bodegas Calar work with 20 hectares of vineyard located at an average altitude of 675 metres above sea level in the Sierra Morena foothills. All vines growns are Tempranillo, or as it is known locally, Cencibel. There are two plots of vines La Loma and La Umbria. La Loma is located at 650 metres and is planted on sloping land with sandy loam soils, this offers good drainage. The grapes from here go into Calar Abrego. The other plot, La Umbria, is planted at 750 metres on north-facing, gently sloping land with volcanic-stony soils, this helps to produce fresh and mineral wines. The grapes from here are used to make the Calar del Rio Mundo. All of their wines are bottled as a Vino de La Tierra de Castilla.

The 100% Tempranillo grapes for the Calar Abrego are picked at optimum ripeness after checks in both the vineyard and the laboratory. All grapes are harvested by hand into 10 kg baskets to ensure that the grapes arrive at the winery in good condition )without broken skins etc.). The vineyards are close to the winery so there is only a short journey which also helps. The grapes are then hand sorted on sorting table at the winery. The grapes are destemmed and then undergo a period of cold maceration of several days prior to fermentation in stainless steel. The wine is allowed to undergo malaolactic fermentation and it is aged for 9 months in a combination of second fill French (60%) and American (40%) oak barrels.