Paranormal Tinto
Juan Carlos Sancha specialise in minority varieties such as Tempranillo Blanco, Maturana Tinta, Maturana Blanca that he and his university colleague Fernando Martinez de Toda discovered, rescued from extinction, and developed.
The Bodega was the first Rioja winery employing these minority varieties in commercial – although artisan and organic – wines. Maturana Tinta comes from an old Navarrateña variety. It has been resurected after 50 years of absence and only 50 hectares of this type of grape exists.
Maturana Tinta is blended 50/50 with Tempranillo and kept for 6 months in French barriques.
The wine label represents a magical vision, a unique ideology of strange and amazing phenomena. The graphic is based on depictions of an ancient universe in which culture was filled with myths and was collected in mystical books as delicious visual narratives. From the books of alchemy to old codices, the style of the most precious engravings has been the inspiration for this design, in which even the typefaces are worked with an aged and imprecise aspect, of manual printing.
A cherry red colour; on the nose it has dominant herbacous aromas (think tomato vines or cut privet), on the palate it’s soft fruit is multi-layered, full and open with a good weight finishing with liquorice and spice.
Drink with lamb or beef roasts.
About the Producer
Bodegas Juan Carlos Sancha
Bodegas Juan Carlos Sancha is a winery located in the Alto Najerilla valley of Rioja Alta, operating from the town of Baños de Río Tobía, situated on five hectares of land along the border of D.O.Ca. Rioja, and in the coldest zone of this wine denomination.
This cooler location contributes to the high quality of their wines. The estate real significance is the planting of minority varieties such as Tempranillo Blanco, Maturana Tinta (which accounts for just 0.38% of red Rioja plantings), Maturana Blanca and extremely rare Monastel vines. The Bodegas specialises in the production of artisan organic wines elaborated from these lesser used varietals.
Maturana Tinta comes from an old minority Navarrateña variety; Tempranillo Blanco is a mutation from the traditional, better-known red Tempranillo grapes
Juan Carlos Sancha is an agronomist and professor of enology at the University of La Rioja and with his university colleague Fernando Martinez de Toda discovered or rescued from extinction these ancient Rioja grapes. Sancha has devoted his career to developing the potential of thesethreatened varieties, first at Bodegas Ijalba then through his own venture. He is a staunch advocate of old vines, traditional vineyards and Viñedos Singulares, Rioja’s new single vineyard category
In addition to the vineyards’ cool, high location vines are very densely planted (5,000 vines per hectare in the poor calcareous soils of these vineyards. These factors make the vines “suffer,” producing fewer grapes with higher juice concentration—qualities which contribute importantly to the Bodega’s complex, high-quality wines. Tempranillo Blanco and Maturana Tinta grapes grow at 565 meters altitude. Also contributing to the quality of the grapes are the location of the vineyards on south-facing hillsides, enabling both good solar radiation and air flow and reducing vine disease susceptibility.
