Los Únicos Selection

If one were to advise a foreign wine connoisseur on the most iconic modern Rioja wines, the recommendation would be the “reserva”. A wine that agglutinates the selection of grapes, barrels and times of ageing. The best wines of Rioja are centred on this type of wine. This is what Luis Canas Reserva Red Wine is.
Luis Cañas, rather a winery owned by the family, is a winery created by the family.
It has a nuance that differentiates the business tradition from the “philosophical” implication of the vision of a family. That is why it is one of the scarce Rioja wineries with a great selection of enviable quality wines characterized by little difference between the extremes in its catalogue.

Luis Cañas Reserva comes from old vineyards with an average age of 40 years of clayey and clayey-calcareous lands with the productivity of 4500 kg of clusters per hectare, located at an altitude between 400 and 700 meters and, therefore, with different dates of grape harvest. They are their own vineyards located in Villabuena, Samaniego, Leza, Navaridas, and Baños de Ebro.

Made with 95% Tempranillo, which when grown in these places and soils of limestone component, makes the wine transmit better the identity of the variety. 5% Graciano is added to the grapes, which gives the wine certain herbal nerve and balsamic notes. Once in the winery and having passed the best cluster selection, the grapes have their stems removed and are squeezed later to be placed in the steel tanks to make the alcoholic fermentation for the period of 22 days, which helps to obtain a better extraction of colour, as well as more complex wines and with tannins suitable for prolonged ageing. After the fermentation, the wine goes to 60% French and 40% American barrels where it performs the malolactic fermentation and an ageing of 18 months in the barrel.

Well covered. Smelling, it has a very pleasant, subtle and elegant, complex bouquet, memories of fine woods, ripe fruit, roasted coffee. Tasting, it is fatty, round, unctuous and well structured, with mature tannin with spicy nuances and notes of ripe black fruit.

Valtravieso Reserva is a red wine with characteristics, perfectly suitable for challenging the process of long ageing, mainly thanks to its clusters of strong maturity, but also with acidity caused by the altitude. For this wine production new barrels from three French forests were selected with an ageing period of not less than 36 months, distributed in 12-month periods for each forest.

It is made with 100% Tinta Fina, in other words, Tempranillo acclimated to thermal amplitude of this Appellation of Origin. The grape was selected by hand in boxes of 15 kilograms. Careful fermentation was carried out at controlled temperature, followed by 35-day maceration, time necessary to assume such long ageing with perfect polyphenolic extraction. Malolactic fermentation was later carried out in the same barrels, completing the process with 20-month bottle maturation.

The red wine demonstrates a beautiful maroon cherry colour, it has a potent spicy aroma with French oak creamy note, toasted and earthy background, with good fruity expression and fresh acidity.

Pago de Cirsus Gran Cuvée Especial is a red wine, made with grapes coming from Bolandín land in Navarra Baja area near Ablitas. It is one of the three best wines of the winery, therefore, it requires a thorough  control from the own vineyard. Clusters selection has not only been done at the vineyards but also in the wine cellar. It is a question of choosing the most mature and smooth grains from 4000 kg low production with 1.60 kg yield per grape stock. The term “special cuvée” already indicates rigour and thoroughness of berries selection according to their ripeness, wisely combining different percentages, according to the year. It combines Tempranillo fruit, Merlot elegance and Syrah structure. Grapes are selected by hand, cluster by cluster, in 15 kg boxes per yard and varieties. A cold maceration is carried out at 5°C for first 24 hours, later to be fermented in French oak tubs to continue ageing in new oak barrels for 14 months.

It is characterized by its attractive maroon cherry colour, with black fruit aroma (blackberry and blueberry compote) with fine spicy and toasted touches (coffee, chocolate). Intense taste in the mouth, wide, full, warm, spicy, with ripe fruit and toasted creamy.