Rioja Crianza Urbina 2015

Rioja Crianza Urbina, smooth, American oak aged, ripe and complex. The Urbina Crianza (12 months in American oak, 6 months in bottle) is a blend of Tempranillo with a little Graziano and is deliciously smooth with ripe damson fruit and a touch of mint from the oak. All the best bits of Rioja without being full of sickly butterscotch flavours. It also goes against the grain in a region with some of the most industrial production in the Europe, by practising sustainable viticulture.

Bodegas Urbina family-run estate that practises organic methods (not certified).

The bodega is situated in Cuzcurrita de Río Tirón, on the north-western edge of Rioja. It is an area that produces wines with a great capacity for ageing, and is therefore excellent for the production of great wines – Reservas and Gran Reservas. Bodegas Urbina, a family-owned, single estate winery, has 75 hectares of vineyards, 65 of Tempranillo, and 10 of Graziano, Mazuelo and Viura. Total production is about 460,000 kilos. Four generations of the family have dedicated themselves to the cultivation of their vineyards and the production of wine. In 1975 the bodega began to age and bottle their own wine in order to retain the special characteristics of a smaller single estate. Their sole objective, the production of quality wines, has been achieved as the result of careful viticulture using traditional techniques, harvesting by hand and avoiding the use of weed killers and pesticides. There has since been a large investment in modern installations, de-stalking machinery, stainless steel fermentation tanks and bottling machinery.