Urbina Seleccion Rioja 2000, Bodegas Urbina

Description

Urbina Seleccion Rioja is a “selection” of the very best Tempranillo grapes from vines with an average of over 20 years old which are normally used for the production of the Reserva and Gran Reserva wines. Urbina Seleccion is bottled too early to be called a Reserva, so it is bottled as a Crianza. It is much closer in style to a Reserva or Gran Reserva than a Crianza.

History of Urbina

The origins of Bodegas Urbina can be traced back to 1870  when Salvador Urbina first began producing wines using the Urbina name. In 1975 the family decided to bottle and age all of the wine made themselves, rather than selling grapes to other wine producers, and the single estate Urbina Rioja wines were created. Today the winery remains family-owned and is run by the fourth generation, Angel, Pedro and Santiago. The Bodega is well-known for ageing their wines for a lot longer than other Rioja producers before releasing them to the market. These wines are a must-try for fans of mature wines – there is no substitute for time!

Bodegas Urbina Location

The winery is located in the village of Cuzcurrita de Rio Tiron on the north-western boundary of DOC Rioja. The estate comprises 75 hectares of vineyards at two main vineyard sites. The first site is near the winery at Cuzcurrita de Rio Turon, an area well-known for producing Riojas capable of ageing for many years ideal for Gran Reservas. The other vineyards are located at Uruñuela, in the heart of the Rioja DOC, which consistently produces wines of great quality and body. The vineyards are planted with 65 hectares of Tempranillo and the remaining 10 hectares are planted with Graciano, Mazuelo and Viura.

Bodegas Urbina produces 300,000 bottles of red Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva. These classic, elegant and stylish red Rioja wines have more recently been joined by a white Crianza, a white Reserva and a new sparkling wine called Valle del Angel Vintage Sparkling which is made from old vine Viura using the ‘Traditional Method’ (Champenoise).

As single-estate wines, all of the wines are made from grapes sourced from estate vineyards. The vineyards are cultivated using traditional methods: harvesting is done by hand and there is little, or no, use of weed killers and pesticides. Additionally, any fertilisers used are organic. Only indigenous yeasts are used in the wine-making process which, combined with the terroir, gives Urbina wines their unique personality. Most recently, there has been a large investment in modern winery equipment, stainless steel fermentation tanks and bottling plant.

Urbina Seleccion Crianza Winemaking

The 100% Tempranillo grapes for Urbina Seleccion Rioja are sourced from Urbina’s old vines, all of which are over 20 years old. Urbina uses the blue label for wines produced from old vines and they use their red label for wines produced from younger plantings of vines, like the Crianza.

After temperature-controlled fermentation at 28C, the grapes undergo 28 days of maceration. The wine was then aged for 15 months in in 95% American oak and 5% French 225l oak casks (2-8 yrs old racked every 6 months). The wine is “assembled”  for at least 3 years in stainless steel after ageing in barrel. Released early before ‘Reserva status’ but with all the qualities of Urbina’s Reserva wines.