15th August 2022 | Life at Virgin Wines | 4 minute read
Our Buying Team have had a busy few weeks, adventuring here there and everywhere on the hunt for new wines to add to our range. The latest trip was by Alex Davies, our Head of Product, who headed to Spain to meet with our good friends at Finca Manzanos winery.
Alex had one objective on his trip: to blend two new Spanish wines to add to our range, and that’s exactly what he did!
Alex’s trip to Rioja means we’ll shortly have two brand new wines to add to our ever-popular Spanish range – the Reformada Ancient Root Tinto, a beautiful red Rioja crafted from the oldest Graciano vines in the world (more on that later!), and the Reformada Barrel Select Blanco, a rule-breaking, ultra-rare white Rioja made from barrel-aged Tempranillo Blanco. And it was all thanks to the generous and talented team at Finca Manzanos for letting Alex have free rein of their iconic Spanish vineyards.
We have worked with Manzanos for the best part of 20 years now, and it’s fair to say they know a thing or two about producing cracking vino! The family run establishment has been passed down through six generations and is going from strength to strength. With access to over 1,500 hectares of vineyards across Rioja and Navarra, we really are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing the best wines from the team, so it’s no surprise Alex couldn’t wait to get out there and find out what they had to offer for his brand new blends!
Alex arrived in Zaragoza, the capital of north-eastern Spain’s Aragon region, where he was collected by David Manzanos – one of the owners of Manzanos Wines. After a quick drive over to the Manzanos estate, no time went to waste with Alex and David jumping straight in the hummer and hitting the vineyards to see how the 2022 vintage was coming along!
The first stop was a beautiful vineyard in Rioja dedicated to growing Graciano. However, this wasn’t just any Graciano vineyard – it was the oldest Graciano vineyard in the world! Alex took the opportunity to explore and the record-breaking grapes were coming along very nicely indeed.
The guys hopped back in the hummer and headed on to an old vine Viura vineyard next. The 2021 vintage from this vineyard was used to produce one of our new Targa wines which is soon to be released, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
After a quick tour of the vineyards it was back to the winery for Alex to meet with winemaker Borja Ripa. Borja is a great friend of ours and is the man behind many of our best-selling Spanish wines. His ability to evolve with new trends and consumer tastes, whilst at the same time retain tradition, is the key to his success when it comes to winemaking.
Alex and Borja set to work on blending two new wines to add to our range, which both launch in September.
The pair tasted their way through a range of wines from across Rioja, including some real classics from this region, such as Tempranillo, Tempranillo Blanca, Viura, Graciano and Ganarcha Blanca. Of course, Alex couldn’t stop thinking about that super old vine Graciano he saw earlier, so was keen for that to star in one of his two new blends!
Using Borja’s extensive winemaking knowledge and Alex’s wine buying experience, the pair were able to expertly craft two exceptional wines from a number of components.
They were spoilt for choice, too, as the area of Spain where Manzanos is based enjoyed an exceptionally long and warm growing season in 2021, allowing the grapes to ripen perfectly. As a result, the quality of the wines produced from these grapes is very high, packed full of rich and enticing flavours.
Alex and Borja had one last job to do in order to perfect these new wines, and that was to head down to the cellar for some barrel tasting, to pick out the best barrel component to blend into the wine to add a little extra depth, richness and complexity.
The wines they tried had been ageing in oak barrels for different periods of time and had therefore developed different characteristics. The pair tasted a few options before making their final decision.
And that was a wrap on Alex’s winemaking mission. His two new wines will now be blended by the expert team at Manzanos and sent to us here in the UK ready for you to enjoy this autumn!
We can’t wait for you to try these sensational new Rioja vinos once they arrive in the UK. The Manzanos team always pull it out of the bag so we can say with confidence these are going to be excellent.
And while you wait for your case of delicious new Rioja wine to arrive, why not check out our existing Spanish wine range by hitting the red button below.
