El Grajo Viejo Takes Off What is quite possibly the best wine in the history of Protos

Attesting to its quality are the 95 points awarded by the Guía Peñín. An effort lasting more than ten years with our PROTOS SELECTION: experimentation and elaboration of grapes from 18 individually selected lots has been key in choosing el Grajo Viejo as the best of the best. Rootstocks over 70 years old, a very small production and great concentration all attest to this.

The cultivation of these parcels is controlled by the winery daily, which puts special emphasis on limiting the yields as well as making a primary selection in the field, a second before stemming and a third, grape by grape, to ensure its exclusive quality.

Because the vines are very old, their roots have reached down through the upper layers of clay to the deeper calcareous layer, which is capable of contributing minerals to the wine, thus creating a wine with inimitable character and personality.

Technical data
The grapes are fermented in large 500-litre new barrels of French wood, with maceration lasting 3–4 weeks. The wine is then racked into new barrels of French oak, from three different cooperages, where at first the malolactic fermentation takes place and then aging continues for 18 months.

Tasting notes
Fruit, power, structure, concentration, complexity and a lot of elegance: these are the elements that make up this expressive, distinctive Ribera.

Cherry red in colour, with good aromatic range and great complexity, a nose of ripe fruit, spicy soothing notes, tobacco, and hints of mineral. The wine is flavourful, big, and powerful in the mouth, but with refined, elegant tannins; it is also very expressive, with spirit provided by the acidity of these vines cultivated in very poor soil at an altitude of 2600 ft (800 m).

There is a long, agreeable and persistent finish, where minerals stand out. It will age well due to its structure and the nice balance between noble tannin and acidity.

Production
Only 9327 bottles have come from the 2009 harvest, which stand as banners of the elegance of Ribera del Duero wines, the peak of the spectrum of the great wines from PROTOS.


PROTOS, from the Greek word "first", is a hundred-year-old winery that has remained loyal to its motto BE FIRST since 1927. This attitude of constant improvement, with the sole premise of quality above all, both day-to-day and in the whole winemaking process, has made the brand a high value icon in international markets, with commercialization in more than 87 countries on five continents. Thanks to its new facilities designed by the prestigious architect and Priztker Prize winner Sir Richard Rogers, it is situated once more at the cutting edge of the winemaking and wine tourism scene in Ribera del Duero.

www.bodegasprotos.com

For more information contact:
Belén Cao
belen@cosmoagencia.com
91 375 98 68