In what is known as the wine country of Zamora, Familia Fernández Rivera planted tempranillo vines from Condado de Haza, restoring an ancient winery that it has now modernized and that includes an underground cave, which is over three hundred years old and is where its wines age in a perfect environment.  

TASTING NOTES

The nose contains tertiary aromas such as tobacco leaves, coffee and caramel notes.  The palate is dense, it being a wide wine that evolves, presenting a range of tertiary aromas that are characteristic of its long bottle ageing process.

 Each year harvest begins towards the middle of September and all vineyard blocks are vinified separately in small stainless steel tanks in order to ensure optimum wine quality. Alcoholic fermentation takes place between 6-10 days at an average temperature of 20-25°C and the finished wine is aged for a minimum of 18 months in fine grain, 225- and 300-liter neutral American oak barrels with a light-to-medium toast. Barrels are racked a minimum of three times during the first twelve months of aging and an additional 2-3 times before bottling. With the Fernández Rivera family is dedicated to natural winemaking, all wines produced are neither filtered nor fined before bottling. Unbound by the strict protocols that govern a Denominación de Origen (D.O.) in Spain, Dehesa La Granja may be aged and released any time the winemaker chooses.  The 2004 Dehesa 14 is refreshingly fruit-forward for its lengthy aging of 24 months in barrel and close to sixteen years in bottle.  We suggest that you decant forty-five minutes before tasting to avoid the sediment typical of a long ageing process.