Manzán 2021, the Bobal estate wine from Casa Lo Alto, takes a Gold Medal at the prestigious Challenge International du Vin

Casa Lo Alto, Venta del Moro (Valencia), 7 June 2023.- Excellent news from Bordeaux! Our Manzán 2021 has achieved a Gold Medal at the Challenge International du Vin, the leading international wine event ever since it was first held in 1977.

Manzán is the wine Casa Lo Alto makes with grapes of the Bobal variety from old vines on three plots of the estate. Each one of them has its particular features because of its orientation and slope, but all three are dry farmed organically on shallow chalky clay soils poor in organic matter.

Some whole bunches are used in making the wine. Fermentation begins spontaneously with native yeasts, and concrete tanks are used, as well as French oak foudres, where malolactic fermentation is completed. The wine is aged for ten months on its lees.

With its previous vintage – 2020 – Manzán achieved an absolute triumph at the Sélections Mondiales des Vins Canada event, where it won a Grand Gold, was classified in the Top 50 and was also proclaimed Best in Show.

Manzán 2021 comes from a very good year in terms of weather, although with strong contrasts due to the high summer temperatures. The early autumn rains were very good for long-cycle varieties like Bobal. As the grapes were very healthy, it was decided to bring the harvest forward a few days. The result was a very fresh vintage.

The 2021 Manzán still has that intense nose marked above all by aromas of red and blue forest fruits, such as blueberries, with balsamic notes and soft touches of spice, aromatic Mediterranean woodland plants, black olives, blue flowers and chocolate. In the mouth, the attack already clearly shows the wine’s character. It is tasty, evoking mountain herb flavours with stimulating freshness, together with fruit, coffee and fine mineral notes. The enveloping finish is sure to get you hooked.

Over these years, Víctor Marqués, the technical director of Casa Lo Alto, who is in charge of both growing the vines on the estate, together with their agricultural and forest surroundings, and the winemaking, has managed to make its Bobal wines stand out from those from surrounding winemakers because of the individual characteristics of the place. But this could not be achieved by someone who did not know the land and its subsoil, the different orientations of the parcels or the vine varieties, or who could not interpret the variable weather each year, harvest at exactly the right time, or later ensure the development of the living wine to achieve a perfect result.