Here's another bombshell wine created by famed winemaker Peter Sisseck and owned by the Fonseca family. Sardonia is a local plant that is traditionally known for inspiring properties of the mind and soul. These wines are elaborated following the most respectful practices from our estate vineyards on the northern banks of the Duero River where wines are estate grown and bio-dynamically farmed. Today, head winemaker Christian Rey, who studied under Peter, continues the estate’s dedication to organic and biodynamic winemaking, ensuring the upmost quality and attention to detail is performed during production. The wines produced at Quinta Sardonia are classified as a Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon, or ‘Wine from the Land of Castilla y León’ and each bottling is considered to be a ‘multi-terroir, multi-varietal’ masterpiece, highly rated and in a class of their own.
Located within the “Golden Mile” of the Duero River that stretches across northern Spain, Quinta Sardonia’s estate-grown vineyards lie at an impressive elevation of 1,600 ft., providing perfect conditions for an ideal phenolic maturation. The vineyards are located less than a mile from the Duero River, and are comprised of a unique blend of French and Spanish clonal selections that lie in eleven different soil types. Ranging from Calcium-to-Gypsum-rich terroir, Quinta Sardonia’s heterogeneous soil and unique varietal composition are said to provide ‘grand character’ to this wine.
During harvest, hand-picked clusters are selected both in the field and at the winery grape-by-grape. Fifteen percent of the fruit was left whole-cluster and rest was gently destemmed before alcoholic fermentation took place with wild yeast strains in small stainless-steel tanks. Varieties are often co-fermented if grown in the same soil type and both temperature and time were carefully managed during maceration in order to achieve a gentle and precise extraction via an ‘infusion’ with the skins. Malolactic fermentation occured spontaneously in 100% French oak barrels and the individual lots were then aged in 60 or 158-gallon French oak barrels, 1,200L foudres for 20 months. After this time, the individual lots were blended together and the finished wine was lightly filtered, bottled and cellared for 12 months before release.
Tasting Notes: Complex aromas of black fruit, licorice, black pepper and chocolate abound in the nose and on the palate. A wine that is ready to drink upon release or age for up to 15 years in bottle, the 2017 Quinta Sardonia contains a medium-long finish with plump tannins and an ‘ethereal’ texture.