This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Out of the different live talks we’ve done over recent weeks on Grupo Arzuaga’s various Instagram profiles, today we wanted to talk to you about one that’s very special in particular. It’s special because, besides being really interesting for all wine lovers, this chat focused on one of our most outstanding wines. We’re talking about the live interview between Carlos González, Director of the Guía Peñín wine guide, and Ignacio Arzuaga, the Managing director of Bodegas Arzuaga, where they talked about our Arzuaga Albillo 2007, named the guide’s ‘Newcomer Wine’ (‘Vino Revelación’) for 2020.
‘The Newcomer Wine awards,’ explained Carlos, ‘are a prize we award based on tasting over 10,000 wines’, given to those wines that ‘have something different about them’. ‘It’s not only that they’re very high-level wines’; they also ‘represent a distinguishing milestone’. It’s worth noting that in the eight years that Peñín Guide has been awarding this prize, all the winning wines have scored at least 93 points, although the highest scoring wine has been our Arzuaga Albillo, with 98 points.
‘The production is simple; it’s how wine has always been made,’ explained Ignacio to Carlos. ‘The grapes are crushed by foot and it was fermented in a barrel used for almost four years to make Fan D. Oro,’ pointed out Bodegas Arzuaga’s managing director before going on to explain the production process for this wine.
‘There’s something that I really like, which is the fact that something from your area is distinctive,’ noted Ignacio. ‘I’ve always strongly advocated that Ribera del Duero had to go for a white wine’.
‘You’ve not only set the bar very high; you’ve set a style and established a paragon where others can say, “I think this is the style of Albillo”. If not as powerful, at least that’s where they’ll aim,’ affirmed Carlos. ‘Four- or five-month-old Albillo has nothing to say; it’s a wine that’s not very expressive and that needs some time to become complex, deep,’ explained Ignacio. ‘Albillo is a white wine that needs time’.
It was a chat full of curiosities, reflections and interesting details. If you’re interested in the world of wine, you can’t miss the full conversation between Ignacio Arzuaga and Carlos González. You can see it on Peñín Guide’s Instagram profile by clicking on this link.