Dehesa del Carrizal Seleccion Privada 2017

The winemaking process is carried out entirely on our estate, under strict quality controls. Over the years, our vineyard is giving increasingly better results. We are committed to responsible winemaking. The winemaking process is carried out entirely on our estate, passing strict quality controls. It comprises several phases: harvesting, transport, cooling, selection and fermentation. The whole process is carried out with the utmost care so that the grapes remain whole, ensuring that they maintain their quality from the vineyard to the vat. 

Fermentation then begins and the grapes pass through the corresponding vat, French wood, concrete or stainless steel, where the different nuances are incorporated. This ends at the moment of devatting, where a complex dynamic of dissolution of the grape components in the wine comes to an end. A very precise monitoring of this fermentation is essential and is carried out with daily tastings. At the end of devatting, the wine is transferred to barrels and the pomace is extracted from the vat and pressed with our vertical press which will give rise to the so-called press wine. This operation is very delicate and we take great care with it, as the quality of the future blend depends on its success.

After fermentation, the wines are transferred to our French oak barrels from different master coopers and toasting levels, as required for each wine. This is where they rest to continue their development.

The barrel ageing process is aimed at aromatic finesse and tannic power, which are the natural characteristics of our wines. Humidity and temperature conditions are always closely controlled. The winter cold favours the precipitation of unstable compounds, while the higher temperatures in summer accelerate the chemical reactions and allow the wine to evolve smoothly. Every 3 or 4 months, we rack the wine carefully from one barrel to another to separate the lees from the clean wine. In this way the wine gains a remarkable limpidity through natural decanting. At Dehesa del Carrizal a third of the barrels are renewed every year.

Few decisions are as important in winemaking as blending. It is an operation of selection and creation. The batches are merged into something greater than the elements that make it up. This moment comes after barrel ageing, but we thought about it from the first day we started tasting lots from different plots. Each variety and/or each plot brings its own difference that allows us to produce a wine of great complexity and balance.

Our Chardonnay also undergoes a rigorous selection process. It is aged for 3 to 5 months and all the barrels are tasted to define the final batch. At the end of the ageing process, our wines will spend the rest of their life in the bottle where they will continue to mature, sometimes for several years.