Cascabel Albarín 2020

Esta historia comienza con dos amigos de la infancia, Nano y Jesús, dos amigos tan inseparables que sus madres les llamaban “las alforjas”; dos amigos que al crecer siguieron juntos y, tras sesenta años de amistad, decidieron llevar a cabo su sueño de montar una bodega, de cultivar un viñedo de manera ecológica e intentar hacer vino como se hacía antes, cuidando de la viña y lo que la rodea como si fueran a vivir para siempre. Así nació El Sueño de las Alforjas, una bodega amparada por la D. O. León que trabaja con las dos uvas autóctonas de la zona: Prieto Picudo y Albarín.
Cascabel Albarín 2020 es un monovarietal de Albarín plantado a más de 800 metros de altitud sobre suelos de canto rodado. Tras una vendimia manual y de madrugada, aprovechando las frías temperaturas del Páramo Leonés, las uvas tienen una maceración pelicular en frío de seis horas. El mosto fermenta parcialmente con sus hollejos en tinajas, y  el vino tiene una crianza sobre lías de seis meses en estos recipientes.
En copa se presenta de un color amarillo limón claro con reflejos verdosos. En nariz manda la fruta de hueso (melocotón), acompañada de notas de hinojo y cítricos. En boca tiene una buena acidez en un trago medio y untuoso, con un final amargo. Es, sencillamente, un vino nacido de la amistad de dos niños tan inseparables que sus madres les llamaban “las alforjas”.

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Viñedos en altura, en pequeños majuelos, con orientaciones y suelos muy diversos sobre los que crecen cepas de entre 60 y 110 años en el extremo oriental del valle del Duero son la base de los vinos de Ermita del Conde, una bodega que queda justo fuera de las lindes de la Denominación de Origen Ribera del Duero, lo que implica que sus vinos se etiqueten como Vinos de la Tierra de Castilla y León.
Ermita del Conde Tempranillo 2014 is, as its name suggests, a single-varietal of “Tinta Fina” (as the Tempranillo is known in the area), a blend of plots from the villages of Arandilla, Brazacorta, Hinojar del Rey, Arauzo de Salce and Peñalba de Castro, with soils mainly made of clay with limestone, an altitude of around 943 meters and southwest orientation. After a harvest by hand and conventional vinification, with indigenous yeasts, the wine is aged for 14 months in French oak barrels and foudres to rest for a large period in the winery before hitting the market.
It shows a cherry color with a crimson rim. Its nose gives us aromas of strawberry jam, herbal hints and a timid presence of wood in the way of tobacco, toasted aromas and vanilla. Its palate is very friendly, not very intense but with a pleasant acidity, marked but tamed tannins and a long, lactic aftertaste.
It’s a good wine that perhaps has not managed to excite us like other references of this same winery, but that offers a formidable quality and price ratio, at the same time that it allows us to know a partially forgotten wine-growing area that triangulates between the Ribera del Duero of Burgos and Soria.This story begins with two childhood friends, Nano and Jesús, two friends so inseparable that their mothers called them “las alforjas” (the saddlebags), two friends who grew up together and, after sixty years of friendship, decided to carry out their dream of setting up a winery, cultivating a vineyard in an ecological way and trying to make wine as it was done before, taking care of the vineyard and what surrounds it, as if they will live forever. That way El Sueño de las Alforjas (the saddlebags dream) was born, a winery enrolled in D.O. León that works with the two native grapes of the area: Prieto Picudo and Albarín.
Cascabel Albarín 2020 is an Albarín single-varietal from vines planted at more than 800 meters of altitude on pebble soils. After a manual harvest at dawn, taking advantage of the León moor cold temperatures, the grapes have a cold skin maceration for six hours. The must is partially fermented with its skins in jars, and the wine is aged on lees for six months in these containers.
In the glass it shows a light lemon yellow color with greenish reflections. Stone fruit (peach) commands the nose, accompanied by notes of fennel and citrus. In the palate it has good acidity in a medium and unctuous sip, with a bitter finish. It’s simply a wine born from the friendship of two children so inseparable that their mothers called them “las alforjas”.