PHINCA ENCANTO

Starting with just three hectares in 1999, David Sampedro, a vigneron from Elvillar in Rioja Alavesa, converted his vineyards to organic farming, revealing a unique side of Rioja. Today, he and his wife Melanie manage 17 hectares of certified organic and biodynamic (Demeter) Estate vineyards, cultivated exclusively by plow-horse. In 2016, they built a sustainable, solar-powered, off-grid winery near their village. David’s forward-thinking vision, focused on biodynamics and expressing the limestone soils and old, high-altitude vines of Elvillar, sets him apart in the region.

Phinca Encanto Rufete mixes notes of smoked sausage, wild herbs, iron and soil, complicated by flowers and an amaro-like note. It tasted of sour cherries, quinine and earth, very unusual and surprising. The grapes come from very old vines on granite and slate soils and fermented in open-top 500-liter oak barrels, where the grapes are foot trodden and fermented with indigenous yeasts.