This time we are off to the attic of
the Pinot universe! Well, at least approx. 1400 m high vinyards in
Andalusia's Sierra Nevada sounds pretty convincing that this might be
actually the highest Pinot Noir there is. Perhaps there are some Pinothiasts in
Yunnan or arable niches in Tibet with a few even higher Pinot Noir vines!
Who know!? I don't, nor do I care! Today we are about 30 km south east of
Granada on the southern foothills of the might Sierra Nevada in a
district called Costa-Albondón. Lorenzo Valenzuela of Barranco Oscuro, son to founder Manuel Valenzuela – one of Spain's natrual
wine pioneers, cultivates a broad vareity of mostly French grapes. Well, there is even some Riesling and some more classical
Spaniards like Albarino or Tempranillo, too. Starting in the early
1980s, most vines have been planted on predominately slate'y soils at an elevation between 1280 to
1368 meters above sealevel. The vines for today's El Pino Rojo 2016 Pinot Noir have
been planted in 1996 on a tiny strip of just 0.6 ha.
Let's hold my theoretical input horeses and just give it a go ...
