Tentenublo Tinto is a red wine from the D.O.Ca. Rioja, made by Tentenublo Wines in Viñaspre, a region in Lanciego, Rioja Alavesa.
Tentenublo Wines is the personal project of Roberto Oliván, a young winemaker from Álava who belongs to the new generation of young oenologists from La Rioja. In 2011, Roberto took charge of his mother’s old winery in Lanciego and began to produce wines following the traditional methods of La Rioja while giving them a more modern touch, seeking greater freshness and with less prevalence of woods.
The Tentenublo winery has 7.5 hectares of its own vineyards located in the municipalities of Lanciego and Viñaspre, in the very heart of Rioja Alta. Divided into 22 small plots, they cultivate varieties like Grenache, Tempranillo and Viura, along with minority varieties like the extremely rare Calagraño. The age of the vineyards ranges from 15 years to more than 100, all of them cultivated organically with minimal intervention.
Tentenublo Tinto is made with Tempranillo, from their own old vines planted at an altitude of 600 metres in sandy and loamy soils.
The harvest is manual, and when the grape reaches the winery, it ferments spontaneously, with native yeasts, in open stainless steel tanks. Malolactic fermentation and the 11-month aging takes place in the same French oak barrels of different sizes.
The amusing illustration that appears on its label expresses the meaning of its name: ‘tentenublo’ was a form of bell ringing used in some parts of Spain to ward off the hail storms that are so damaging to the vineyards.