La Craie comes from the South facing slope of Monte Alabanza, Its parcel is long and goes from West to East entirely in the vineyard, from Uní at the East until the Conifers Forest to the West. Here the soil becomes short and the calcareous rock flourishes on topsoil.
2021 was a cold and humid year; consequently, the wines appear fresh and delicate, very similar to those of the 2016 vintage and somewhat to 2019. The spring of 2020 was dry and stable, with few frosts and no visible damage to the vineyards. The month of November also had very benevolent weather that allowed excellent flowering and fruit set. The conditions were maintained until the end of January, when rainfall began until the harvest; which generated about 10 days of delay in the start compared to previous harvests. The ripening, far from being violent, was very good, accompanied by cool and pleasant days that synchronized the sugar-acidity balance very well.
The Malbec and Cabernet Franc were destemmed into 500- liter vats where they co-fermented. Fermentation was spontaneous with indigenous yeasts and vinification was carried out with very gentle daily trampling. The skins were in contact with the wine for 40 days. The aging was 16 months in used neutral French oak barrels.
This vintage shows us a unique facet of La Craie: an extremely austere wine on the nose, shyer than it usually is a deep soil wine that needs time to showcase its personality.
The vintage in particular makes us think about the introspective character of a wine that will have a lot to show in years to come. The palate is very striking, of root wines, with marked tension, austere and very deep. Its finesse lies in its extremely fine-grained texture.
Vintage 2021 total production:
1353 bottles of 750 cc,
