This Gómez Cruzado Pancrudo Selección Terroir DOCa Rioja is an Atlantic Garnacha offering a well-balanced combination of grape ripeness and integrated oak. On the palate this wine showcases its juiciness and elegant finesse, with chalky and fine grained tannins. Enjoy with herbed lamb for a delicious pairing.

Critic Review

Decanter Magazine: 96Pts
Drinking Window: 2022 - 2028

"Founded in 1886, Gómez Cruzado sources its wines from about 100 predominantly bush-vine plots across three areas within Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Alta. Grapes for the Pancrudo 2020 came from 100% old-vine Garnacha planted at 650m on clay-ferrous soils in Badarán, Alto Najerilla. Fermented in stainless steel with malolactic fermentation in new French oak (65%) and concrete egg tanks (35%). Sarah Jane Evans MW: Full of character, with lively redcurrant, blueberry and brambly fruit layered with a rasp of tannin. Well-balanced acidity and a very fine, supple texture. Complex and individual. Christine Allen: Fresh cranberry, redcurrant and toasted spice. Lifted and well balanced, with bags of fruit enveloped by warming spices. Beth Willard: Delicate and precise redcurrant and red cherry aromas, with pink grapefruit. Warm and ripe on the palate; well managed and balanced"
Sarah Jane Evans MW, Christine Allen, Beth Willard

About the Producer

The Gómez Cruzado winery dates back to 1886 when Angel Gómez de Arteche started to produce and bottle his own wine in Haro, at the very heart of Rioja Alta. This was in the day when the wine trade between Rioja and France passed along the Tudela-Bilbao line, and the key Rioja wineries were located around the station of Haro. The winery sits just 100m from the station to this day. Subsequently bought by Angel and Jesus Gomez Cruzado in 1916, and more recently by the Baños family, David González now heads up the team. He has been working with Gomez Cruzado for over 10 years, crafting wines from vineyards of old bush vines in the most elevated areas of Rioja Alta and Alavesa. He sources from almost a hundred different plots across 3 distinct regions: Alto Najerilla, Bajo Najerilla and Sierra Cantabria. Sierra Cantabria (Rioja Alta and Alavesa): Vines grow in poor, white, chalky-clay soils, on sunny slopes at the highest part of the sierra (up to 750m altitude) - where the Mediterranean and Atlantic climates meet. The area produces wines with freshness and elegance. Bajo Najerilla (Rioja Alta): in the triangle formed by the villages of Uruñuela, Cenicero and Torremontalbo, where the Najerilla river flows into the River Ebro. Tempranillo vines grown in alluvial soils at an average altitude of 500m – in a warmer, more temperate continental climate with a notable Mediterranean influence. Wines have high maturity and excellent ageing capacity. Alto Najerilla (Rioja Alta): Garnacha vines over 80 years old, planted in ferrous clay soil at around 750m altitude, on north-facing slopes near the Sierra de la Demanda. The continental climate confers strong fruitiness and marked acidity on the resulting wines.

Vineyard and Winery

The old bush-trained Garnacha vines are planted in red ferrous-clay soils in the rolling hills of Badarán (near the upper Najerilla), due south of Haro. The vineyards are north-facing at around 650m altitude. The grapes are hand-harvested into 20kg crates, and are sorted by hand at the winery. After fermentation in stainless steel, gently plunging the cap, malolactic fermentation takes place - 65% in new French oak, and 35% in egg-shaped concrete tanks. The resulting wine is blended and bottled.