2018 Dominio De Atauta Ribera Del Duero

(93 Points) I love the 2018 Dominio de Atauta, a wine of balance and freshness, with more finesse, juicy and with very fine chalky tannins and lots of youth. The wine is still a little tight, but should develop nicely in bottle. There is full ripeness here, and the grapes developed lots of flavor and aromas; the cycle was longer and the quality of the tannins also different. 43,167 bottles and 990 magnums produced. It was bottled in August 20120 after 16 months in barrel, 15% of them new.

Issue 255 End of June 2021, The Wine Advocate

Dominio De Atauta

Location: The Atauta Valley is located at the very beginning of the Ribera del Duero appellation and only

50 km. away from the birthplace of the Duero River in the province of Soria at 1,000 meters above sea level. This valley is highly eroded and has a highly diverse variety of soil profiles especially when taking into account its relatively small dimension (4 km long by 1 km wide).

Vineyard: the winery is made up of 15 ha. and controls 30 ha. of vineyards. The years of experience and hard work in this area have helped us to get to intricately know the singular characteristics of each of our more than 500 micro-plot vineyards. Each plot is managed individually maintaining a maximum respect of its unique essence and characteristics .Alt. from sea level: 980- 1050 m

Climate: This area has a continental climate with a Mediterranean influence that is characterized by very long and rigorous winters and by short and hot summers.

Average rainfall: 430 mm/year

Soils: In the Atauta valley there are a myriad of soil profiles, exposures and orientations to be found that will lend a unique personality and characteristics to the grapes of each particular vineyard. Something that is common to all the plots is that they are all have a sandy layer in the top layer of the soils. This sandiness is a key reason why this valley has resisted the onslaught of phylloxera. Apart from this, they all have calcareous bedrock that lends minerality and complexity to the wines and that act as a barrier to the roots.

Average vine age: pre-phylloxeric. 120 and over 140 years

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