Domino Del Aguila - Picaro Clarete 2021
Price: $72.99
Sale Price: $57.99
| Producer | Domino Del Aguila |
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| Country | Spain |
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| Region | Ribera Del Duero |
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| Varietal | Tempranillo, Albillo |
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| Vintage | 2021 |
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| Sku | 06066 |
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| Size | 750ml |
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“Amazingly original… wild, unconventional, so appealing… lots of identity.” - Decanter
With a slew of 97+ pt wines under his belt, and a newly anointed 100 pointer, owner and winemaker Jorge Monzon is one of the fastest rising stars in the world. With experience at the legendary Domaine de la Romanee Conti and Vega Sicilia, Jorge began purchasing ancient vineyards around his hometown of La Aguilera, Ribero del Duero. Now, 12 years into his project, he is producing some of the most exciting, and unique, wines you will ever find.
Which brings us back to the importer’s entreaty.
So if it isn’t rose – and it sure looks like it – what is it? What is clarete?
The rose wines you are used to drinking are made from the juice of red grapes, kept for just a short time in contact with the skins. You see, the juice of red grapes (with just a couple exceptions) is clear. The color is in the skins. The result… well, you already know or you wouldn’t be getting this email.
Clarete is considered by many to be the “original” rose. Going back over 1,000 years, most vineyards consisted of a variety of grapes, red and white, intermixed. Come harvest time, they were all fermented together, resulting in a pink or pale red wine that combined the attributes of a red wine – tannins and structure- with those of a white – floral aromas and acidity.
Ribera del Duero is one of the few paces left in the world with a relatively recent history of the style. Unfortunately, as consumers have gravitated towards lighter and lighter rose wines, Ribero producers have acquiesced and stopped producing clarete. Enter Senor Monzon…
Here he takes roughly equal parts Tempranillo and Albillo (a white grape that is a parent of Tempranillo), along with a pinch of Garnacha and Bobal from 60+ year-old vines. Whole clusters are fermented together in vats for 8-9 months before being transferred to neutral oak barrels for 16 months.
Aromas of plums and strawberries mingle with fresh cut flowers to seduce you before exploding across your palate with blackberries and cherries and mulberries and spice. It messes with your mind, that’s for sure… if you close your eyes and smell it, you are thinking white… maybe rose… you open your eyes, and of course, it’s rose. But then you sip it and… well, if you closed your eyes again, you’d swear it was a red. Maybe. It’s all quite confusing. My advice? Just drink it and enjoy it! With what? Practically anything, from fish to meat. Looking over a menu at the top restaurant in nearby Aranda del Duero… grilled shrimp and octopus, corvina (kind of like swordfish) grilled with a salsa of seasonal veggies, tuna steak, duck breast with cherry sauce… all good…
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All pricing and availability subject to change.
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