Vino Tinto Arx 2016 14%, Bodega Tesalia

Appearance
very deep black-red with a cherry coloured rim and a faint trace of maturity starting to sneak in.
Nose

Big and ripe yet still fairly tight dominated by hefty Syrah notes of leathery black fruit, a suspicion of smoke and spice and a hint of pepper. Then there are toasty, lead pencil notes of French oak leaving the Petit Verdot and Tintilla to play a minor role but provide some freshness and elegance with some blueberry notes. It is still young and once all these aromas start to integrate it should be amazing.

Palate

Full bodied and well structured with notable spice and pepper notes then that leathery plummy ripe fruit appears with a smoky almost barbecue character, and the Andalusian heat really comes through. This is a very fine but rather masculine wine with plenty of tannin but at least it is good and ripe. It needs a couple of years to soften off a bit and a few more to reveal the finesse it surely has.

Comments

Made from a blend of Tintilla (35%), Syrah (50%) and Petit Verdot (15%) all hand harvested at night, this excellent wine comes from near Arcos de la Frontera. The plots where the vines are grown are all clay soils over chalk oriented north east and while they catch the hot Levante wind they are protected from the worst of its heat by the slopes of the vineyard, thus getting good ripening conditions. The grape bunches are carefully selected before a 4 day cold soak and the different grape varieties are fermented separately for two to three weeks. The wines are then blended to achieve the optimum character and aged in mostly French oak for a year. Production was 18,000 bottles. Arx is the estate's second wine after Tesalia. The wine's name and indeed the place it comes from derive from the Latin Arx (castle/fortress). This is the first commercial release of this wine which is produced at an estate belonging to the Golding family which has 11 hectares under vine.

Price
17.85 Licores Corredera

Tesalia 2015 14.5%, Bodega Tesalia

Appearance
Opaque blacky red, still retaining a hint of purple at a fairly tight rim with ruby glints.
Nose
Big, full and still a little closed but lots of ripe black berry fruit like blueberry and bramble, though a  slightly smoky, peppery hint denotes the presence of Syrah. A ripe grape skin texture is apparent and there are attractive toasty, spicy notes of French oak. This is a serious wine which is yet to show its full hand. It is deep and concentrated, almost brooding  and most impressive.
Palate
Full bodied, quite intense and well structured with noticeable but well controlled ripe tannins. It is very generous with a real feel of the hot south. It has all you'd expect of a fine wine with lots of spice, fruit, texture, grip and complexity, all well balanced and harmonised, but still needs time to give of its best, and its best will be very good indeed in three to five years. This is an extremely good wine.
Comments
This is Richard Golding’s first commercial release of what he hopes will be the “Grand Cru” of Andalucía. It comes from 11 hectares of vines in a beautiful estate in the foothills of the Sierra de Grazalema near Arcos de la Frontera. The wine is made from 65% Petit Verdot, 25% Syrah, 5% Tintilla and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, all from separate plots, night harvested by hand and vinified separately. The grapes are cold macerated for 4 days before fermentation which lasts a little over 3 weeks. After blending the wine is aged for a year in French oak barrels. Naturally the percentages of grapes in the blend vary slightly from year to year. Total annual production of this Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz is around 6,000 bottles. The ribbon on the neck of the very heavy bottle, which is sealed with a quality 2 inch cork, shows the GPS coordinates of the bodega.

Price

29,60, Licores Corredera

Table Wine Bodegas: Bodega Tesalia

Ex top international marketing executive Richard Golding fell in love with the Arcos de la Frontera area and decided to make a wine of outstanding quality there on a 160 hectare estate he bought in 2008 in the foothills of the Sierra de Grazalema. It started as virgin land but now 11 hectares are planted with vineyard in 10 north facing blocks carefully selected according to soil, while the rest is given to horse breeding and farming. The soils are not particularly fertile being mostly clay over chalk but that is perfect for the grape varieties planted which are Petit Verdot, Tintilla, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. 

The climate is tempered by both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic as well as the hills of the sierra and the nearby water reservoirs. Irrigation is used if necessary and harvesting is manual and is done at night. Two wines are produced, both red and launched in January 2018: Tesalia, the flagship wine is a blend of all the grapes planted and Arx (from the Latin Arcis or fortress - hence Arcos) is a blend of Syrah, Tintilla and Petit Verdot. Both are Vinos de la Tierra de Cádiz. The wine team consists of Richard’s daughter Natalia who has a Masters in Oenology and Viticulture, oenologist Ignacio de Miguel, Agricultural Engineer José Ramón Lissarrague and the consultant is Dutchman and Master of Wine Cees Van Casteren.

No expense has been spared to produce an Andalusian Grand Cru so state of the art equipment and techniques are used at this Château-like estate. Bunches are selected both at the vineyard and on arrival at the winery, while fermentation takes place in gravity-fed stainless steel and wooden tanks and the wines are aged in mostly French oak. Production is limited with only 6,000 bottles of Tesalia.

Address: Carretera de la Perdiz a las Abiertas, km 35

11630 Arcos de la Frontera, Cádiz

Telephone: 669 434 719

Website: www.bodegatesalia.com