Mixtura ‘Red’ Tinto 2018
Mixtura ‘Red’ Tinto 2018
Mixtura is a small craftsman winery in northwestern Spain helmed by Gutier Seijo Otero, a Galicia native who has gained extensive experience working in some of the most prestigious cellars of Galicia and throughout the world in his work with other top wineries. Created in 2019, Mixtura – Independent Wines is the natural evolution of his ideals, vision, and all that he has learned along the way.
Mixtura was born of an ideology built on the search and recovery of historical vineyards and their native varieties along the course of the ancient river valleys of northwestern Spain’s border with Portugal. Working with grape varieties that straddled the Miño river centuries before a border even existed, Gutier has left the geographical and political restrictions of appellations behind him in order to focus on discovering the purest expressions of terroir.
Cuvée ‘Red’ is a stunning, electric red wine made from the caiño longo grape variety from the village of Beiro in Ribeiro, a wine which perfectly encapsulates the identity and soul of the Ribeiro region. The 0.2 ha single-vineyard Paraje was planted between 2013 and 2019 from naturally low-yielding, old massale-selection clones in sábrego blanco soils – white sandy decomposed granite. Ribeiro has a transitional climate with a Mediterranean character that is moderated by the influence of the Atlantic Ocean. Gutier farms the vineyard by hand, utilizing organic and regenerative principles, including cover glass between rows.
“When I started this project, one of the main challenges was with the red wine. I want to produce something different than what is currently being done in Galicia. There are a lot of wines made that draw inspiration from red wines made in the Rhône and Burgundy, and for sure that is great, but I’m looking for something with more of a Galician identity That is why I choose to work with caiño longo in sábrego soils and to do something different with the vinification. With the vinification, I want to feel the terroir, not necessarily the imprint from the grape. The philosophy is the same for the red wines as with my white wines, so I do one year of aging in barrel, followed by three years in foudre. The fruit expression lessens and the terroir is exposed.” – Gutier Seijo
Mixtura’s Cuvée ‘Red’ is a complex and delicious red wine with incredible floral and peppery aromatics with citrus, spice, dark forest fruit, and a well-structured acid backbone on the palate. Cuvée ‘Red’ is undoubtedly the greatest single-variety wine made from caiño longo we have tasted. Just one barrel was produced, so quantities are incredibly small, with just 1600 bottles produced.
Vinification – Caiño bunches are hand-harvested and sorted in the vineyard. After destemming and crushing, the must begins alcoholic fermentation spontaneously with native yeasts in used, open-top 225-liter French oak barrels without temperature control. After alcoholic fermentation, the wine spends 12 months in the same barrels on the fine lees, where it undergoes spontaneous malolactic fermentation. The wine is then racked into large format Austrian Stockinger foudres, where it spends a further 36 months aging. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, with minimal sulfur at bottling.