In the past decade or so, Dominio de Aguila has become one of the benchmark wineries in Ribera del Duero. Canta La Perdiz comes from one of the oldest vineyards in the village of La Aguilera, a plot at 890 meters in altitude that has sandy and limestone-rich soils. Like all of their vineyards, it's planted with a field blend dominated by Tempranillo but with small percentages of many other grapes, and the aim is to be able to ferment them all together. Their vineyards are certified organic; they do not own a destemmer and everything is fermented with indigenous yeasts and in a very traditional way: foot treading the bunches to free the juice, fermenting all the grapes from the field blend of varieties (always dominated by Tempranillo or Albillo) together in slow fermentations in very cold cellars and the wines also require a long and slow aging in large oak barrels.

"Another single-vineyard red, the 2014 Canta la Perdiz was bottled as an experiment in previous years and finally released in 2013 for the first time. Here, the vines are extremely old and the soils very shallow and rich in limestone, which tends to produce wines with more finesse and elegance. The vines are located at 890 meters in altitude on decomposed soils that allow the roots to enter deep into the soil and nurture on the mother rock. The elevage lasted 31 months, as all wines need to polish the chalky tannins derived from the limestone soils. It really follows the same path as the 2013, with great freshness and elegance. The distinct characteristic from the best of the wines here is a special perfume. With time, it also develops a spicy twist, reminiscent of nutmeg, faintly exotic. These wines show floral, subtle, elegant and nuanced, really captivating. The palate is refined, with fine-grained, chalky tannins and all about elegance and finesse. There are few wines like this in Ribera del Duero. It might be splitting hairs, but this could be a tad better than the 2013! 1,053 bottles and 25 magnums were filled in May 2017." Luis Gutierrez The Wine Advocate 97+ points

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