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Bideona

2021

Leza (L3Z4)

Tinto - Viñedos en Leza   |   Rioja Alavesa - Spain
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

Bideona’s village wine series is intended to showcase the differences in character among the great, historic wine villages of Rioja Alavesa. This series also highlights a senseless regulation of the Denominación de Origen, which allows the use of a village name by the location of the winery – the building – and not the vineyards. Despite having full traceability of each vineyard parcel, Bideona cannot legally use village names on the labels. As a clever workaround, they have substituted all village names with acronyms that they have registered as brands. Thus, ‘Leza’ becomes L3Z4. This Tempranillo-based field blend comes from old vineyards planted at 1,900-2,000 feet above sea level overlooking the Ebro Valley. Leza is a village right below the Sierra Cantabria and is the most structured wine.  Ripening is the latest among Bideona’s villages due to altitude and the influence of the mountains.  It displays a black fruit profile with exceptional depth and tannins, harmonizing structure with freshness.

The grapes were hand harvested in small crates and then manually sorted on a sorting table before being de-stemmed. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentations were carried out in stainless-steel & concrete tanks with an indigenous yeast start and finishing with a house-cultured strain. Gentle pump-overs were done to maximize personality without high extraction of color or tannins. The wine was pressed off the skins and was sent to a mix of stainless-steel and predominantly used 300L French oak, with a couple of new barrels, for 12 months of aging. It was bottled with a coarse filtration and very gentle sulfur addition. No fining.

Stats

  • Grapes: Field blends of Tempranillo (≈80%) with Mazuelo (≈8%), Graicano (≈5%), Garnacha (≈3%) & others (≈4%)
  • Vineyard: 10 parcels in the village of Leza
  • Vine Age: 55-80-years-old
  • Soil Type: Stony limestone with a lighter calcareous clay
  • Viticulture: Practicing organic – dry-farmed
  • Fermentation: Native & inoculated with house-cultured yeasts – stainless-steel & concrete (100% destemmed)
  • Skin Contact: 10 days
  • Aging: 12 months in predominantly stainless-steel tanks with a few older 300L French barrels and two new ones
  • Alcohol: 14.5%
  • pH: 3.81
  • Total Acidity: 4.9 g/L
  • Total SO2: 101 ppm
  • Total Production: 321 cases
  • UPC: 8437000693833
  • SRP: $59.99

Tasting Note

An unfurling wine.  Cherry, plum, a rustle of dried herbs on the nose, and then the palate arrives almost plush, almost cherry liqueur-like, before the wine catches itself and finds its spine. That defines the personality here: fruit up front, but underneath, a chalky tension that keeps tightening the longer it sits in the glass, like watching a loose rope get pulled into a tight knot.  The mid-palate is transparent, almost receeding that you feel the limestone.  Tannins are abundant but polished, chalky rather than gripping, the kind that frame a wine instead of fighting it. This all guides to a long, peppery, mineral-driven finish.

Press & Reviews

James Suckling

94

"Less fruit and more bones, with a tense, transparent mid-palate where you feel the chalkiness without the flesh. Tannins are abundant, chalky and really polished. Minerally, effusive and long. An exciting Rioja that shows the fruit and terroir. Peppery, minerally finish. Drink from 2025."

- Zekun Shuai

Vinous

94

'The 2021 Bideona L3Z4 (Leza) is a Tempranillo from Leza that aged for 12 months in stainless-steel & 300L French oak barrels. Aromas of cherry, plum and dried herbs lead into a plush, generous palate. Slightly liqueur-like at first, this gains definition through its chalky tension and compact structure. The 2021 is long-lasting and flavorful with notable aromatic complexity."

- Joaquin Hidalgo

Producer


Bideona

Region


Rioja Alavesa

Country


Spain

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