Vinateros Santos "Vila de Piedra" Tinto 2019

Direct Press Selection | February 2022  [PRESS 4 MIX] Mayu Miller of Viña Franca created the Viñateros Santos label to make wines that focus on out-of-the-way vineyards near Zamora and the Toro region. Much of the wines are sourced from fruit that had been previously sold off to negociants or cooperatives. For the Vila de Piedra, Mayu enlisted Alvar de Dios, who got his start with the Commando G team, to make a field blend from a black slate soil vineyard near the Portuguese border at 2600 ft. These are old vines planted from the 1920s to the 1940s, and it’s a blend of Mencia, Bastardo, Rufete, Cariñena, Trincadeira, Juan García, Mandón, Tinta Jerónimo, Gajo, and Arroba, farmed Biodynamically. The wine is fermented in cement and aged in steel, with 40ppm of sulfur added at bottling. Alvar says he is “obsessed with freshness,” and it really shows here. The wine is very floral, with orange blossom, pollen, and pomegranate. It’s pretty and stays smooth and soft, but there is complex uma