Vina El Pison 2017 — Artadi

The history of Artadis goes back to a cooperative project. In 1985, several producers joined forces, who were of the opinion that it is possible to produce top wines in the region without extremely long barrel aging. Under the leadership of Juan Carlos López de Lacalle, they succeeded in refining this process over the decades and to achieve remarkable successes. In 2016, it was decided to leave the DOCa Rioja, as the philosophy was too different from that of the rest of the appellation. Even today, Artadi does not produce wines of the Reserva and Gran Reserva stages. Nevertheless, discreet use of wood is not renounced without covering the terroir.

El Pisón is an amphitheatre site planted with 80 year old tempranillo vines, never farmed other than organically and now of course biodynamically. Everything is handwork or horse work. The site is considered the best at Artadi and has a slightly higher clay content compared to El Carretil, which makes the wines a little richer, a little more powerful.

Dense ruby red with clear violet reflections, without water edge, dense but slightly translucent.

The wine needs air! After aerating it shows dark berries, such as blueberries, blackberry black currant but also spicy ethereal notes of eucalyptus and rosemary. Only very, very slowly the whole colour and aroma variety opens. A folding picture which must be first spread out, in order to show its whole splendour. Now the fruit is complemented by elderberry chocolate, cedar, coffee, cinnamon and clove.

On the palate, the El Pison hints at the fruit only delicately at the moment. Here the spicy and warm flavours of cinnamon and clove and chocolate dominate. After a while, the dark fruit cannot be denied either. Blackberry, elderberry and blueberry are joined by plum on the palate. Everything remains velvety interwoven. The powerful tannin holds everything together but without being hard and brittle, rather like a supple warm coat that will hold this wine together for a long time.

If you want to open the El Pison now, you should definitely carafe it and give it a few hours, maybe even a day. Only then it opens but even then it does not show its full size. The El Pison wants to be penetrated, it wants to be understood, it needs time! But it hints at its greatness in its infinite length, which does not want to end but still seems as if it does not reveal everything.