The cooperative winery will soon launch two new wines—Cuarenta Vendimias Cuvée 2020 and Amador Diez Verdejo Cuvée 2020—under this category that is characterised by including exclusively old vineyard wines, from selected harvest and small volume winemaking, and being haute-cuisine oriented
La Seca, 17 May 2021.- Bodega Cuatro Rayas launches Cuatro Rayas Longverdejo Viñedos Centenarios 2020, the first wine of the cooperative winery under the Gran Vino de Rueda (Great Rueda Wine) category to reach the market. The new Gran Vino de Rueda category is identified by a new dedicated Designation of Origin Rueda label that certifies its quality and origin, and that will only be carried by wines—such Cuatro Rayas Longverdejo 2020 and soon Cuarenta Vendimias Cuvée 2020 and Amador Diez Verdejo Cuvée 2020—that meet the requirements this new quality framework defines: over 30-year-old vineyard, a yield lower than 6,500kg/ha and processing from kilograms to litres of 65%.
Cuatro Rayas Longverdejo Viñedos Centenarios 2020 is a very complex and balanced wine, made from a coupage that reflects faithfully the terroir from where it comes. For its winemaking, we used Verdejo variety from old vineyards located in Aldeanueva del Codonal (Segovia)—with a sandier pine forest soil—where acidity and nerve predominate on the palate, and fresh fruit and minerality, on the nose. These characteristics blend perfectly with sweeter fruit and fennel from the vineyards in La Seca and Serrada (Valladolid)—with pebble soil—that brings the volume and mouthfeel characteristic of these areas.
Century-old winegrowing tradition and selected harvest and winemaking for a unique coupage
On top of the carefully selected harvest—with an average yield of 5,445kg/ha and picked by hand in 300kg crates that are later refrigerated in a cold room—, the production of this wine is highly meticulous, with differentiated processing by the plot that includes a vibrating selection table step and a uses a low capacity and non-pumping Inertis pressing system to preserve intact the optimum quality of the grapes from each plot to the bottle.
Cuatro Rayas Longverdejo Viñedos Centenarios 2020 fermentation and ageing have been carried out in stainless steel vats, egg-shaped concrete vats, and 500L French oak barrels with different toasting levels, where it is aged on its fine lees for five months, with a daily bâtonnage for three months.
This whole range of winemaking processes is blended to obtain a single coupage of 13,268 bottles, where the unique characteristics of the Verdejo from DO Rueda are remarkably enhanced.
CUATRO RAYAS LONGVERDEJO PROJECT
Sustainability and archeoenology for innovation in Verdejo for ageing winemaking
The research project ‘Longverdejo’ is a study run by the cooperative winery Cuatro Rayas in collaboration with the Vine and Vineyard Research Institute (IIVV, by its acronym in Spanish) of the University of León and co-financed by the CDTI with ERDF funds of the European Union that aims to increase the longevity and ageing potential of the Verdejo variety in DO Rueda and thus improve access to the international market for these aged white wines made from this variety.
The project is developed based on novel and sustainable soil management and vineyard handling techniques and a crucial archeoenology work, isolating and selecting indigenous yeasts from the traditional underground cellars located in the provinces of Valladolid and Segovia. Cuatro Rayas Longverdejo Viñedos Centenarios 2020 Gran Vino de Rueda is the result from this study that, in addition to the works on vines, soils, and yeast, consists of a critical component relating to the organoleptic selection of the resulting musts and ageing control.
The initiative has an overall budget of €599,006.36, and it is co-financed by the CDTI with the European Union ERDF funds through the 2014-2020 Multiregional Operational Programme for Smart Growth. Longverdejo has a scheduled duration of 36 months, between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2022.
