More about Sierra de Tolono

Rioja is one of Spain’s oldest and most traditional wine regions, but in its modern iteration, it offers up a surprisingly diverse patchwork of wineries, winemakers, and wine styles. Sandra Bravo’s Sierra de Toloño winery is one of the most exciting new projects we’ve come across in some time.

In the foothills of its namesake Sierra de Toloño mountain range, Sandra tends a few family-owned vineyards of Tempranillo, Garnacha and Viura. She’s a Rioja native, but learned how to make wine in Bordeaux, Tuscany, New Zealand and California; it was a stint in Priorat, though, that taught her how crucial the vineyard’s exposition and vitality are to producing wines of freshness and terroir expression.

By no means is Rioja a cool climate wine region. But up in Rioja Alavesa, in the high elevation foothills and on rocky, clay-limestone soils, there is plenty of freshness to be found. Dialing back Rioja’s trademark oakiness helps, too. The grapes are harvested in early October, treated delicately in the cellar, then left to age in either tank or neutral barrel.

Her Rioja blanco is 100% Viura (a.k.a. Macabeo in Catalonia) from those high elevation vineyards. It’s a mineral-driven white that’s all about texture; with hints of citrus fruit and pineapple, and ample salinity, it’s a delicious and pure expression of a variety more typically seen with age and after extensive barrel aging. Limpid and crystalline, it’s a balm for warm days — though it’s far from a simple quaffer.

The equivalent red wine is 100% Tempranillo, aged for 8 months in a combination of neutral barrels and amphorae. It’s spicy and fruity, with Tempranillo’s hallmark red cherry flavors and notes of spice. Unencumbered by new oak, it’s another refreshing take on Rioja classicism — all of the fruit, all of the sunshine, all of the mineral notes from the clay-limestone soils, on a light and pretty frame.

Though she’s only been back in Rioja since 2012, Sandra’s been getting some great press domestically and abroad. It’s only a matter of time before this young dynamo truly blows up.