The 2011 Cisma is also pure Tempranillo from a single vineyard called Valtabada planted in 1925. They produce 1,200 kilos of grapes from 0.8 hectares. Concerning the name, he explains the problem when you have almost 90 wineries in a village is that they all tend to own vineyards in the same zones, so they cannot all use the same names for the wines and have to find other alternatives. The wine is very dark-colored, but looking for elegance (there-s zero new oak in this wine), rounder, hedonistic, and open with subtle aromas of black and blue fruit. The palate reveals some fine-grained, abundant tannins, good intensity of flavors and great length. This is a superb, ripe, powerful, open and pleasurable wine, round, with no edges. 1,200 bottles produced. Drink 2015-2020.
Carlos San Pedro, who is the man behind Pujanza, started 15 years ago after working with his father where he acquired vast experience (the last year he worked with his father he fermented 11 million kilos of grapes!). The initial idea with Pujanza was to produce one single wine, from Laguardia, but they have different soils so they changed their mind and are making separate vinifications by types of soil, and little by little they have identified some vineyards and are going to bottle them separately. Carlos uses no external yeasts, and he-s reducing the amount of new wood and also keeping the wines for longer in (used) barrels aiming at respecting the character of each of the vineyards. They have close to 30 hectares of vines, all close to the winery located between 600 (Cisma) and 720 meters (Norte) altitude.
Imported by Grapes Of Spain, Lorton, VA; tel. (571) 642-0343; www.grapesofspain.com