When your job is to produce a product aimed at a relatively large audience, as in our case, there are many scales to know if you have hit the spot. One of them, the definitive one for all that implies, is how the consumers receive those wines. There are others, more subtle but equally important, because they can help to give a good push to a wine. We are referring to the prizes awarded in national and international competitions, and to the scores offered by the most significant wine guides.
One of them, the Peñín Guide, has just announced the results of its 2018 edition.
And it has been in this guide, referring to worldwide, in which our wines more select have obtained a great score. Cerro Bercial Ladera Los Cantos has been punctuated with 91 points in the Peñín Guide, and Cerro Bercial Blanco Selección with 90 points.
What does it mean that the Peñín Guide gives Cerro Bercial this score? All those wines punctuated by Peñín from 90 to 94 points are considered excellent, with values similar to the exceptional ones. And those may be some of the deserved labels that we can put to Cerro Bercial Ladera Los Cantos and Cerro Bercial Blanco Selección, but not the only ones.
Someone once told us that drinking Cerro Bercial moved him to the very vineyard.
They are wines so expressive and so honest in their taste, that the metaphor seems to us the most correct.
Careful selection in the vineyard and peculiar elaboration in the winery
Cerro Bercial are our premium wines, made with grapes selected from the best plots. Of all the wines that we make in Bodega Sierra Norte, these are the ones that spend more time in the barrel. When you taste it you can perceive the contribution of wood, perfectly balanced and integrated with the presence of fruit, which remains intact and very alive thanks to a careful process of elaboration, which gives rise to a tremendously expressive wines.
Cerro Bercial Ladera Los Cantos, made with 65% Bobal and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, is the result of a careful work with which it is possible to obtain a product of high expression. The grapes are selected manually in the cellar to be followed by a long and peculiar preparation, which gives way to the malolactic fermentation in 100% French oak barrels of first use, where it grows to 18 months. Finally, spend 10 months in bottle to complete a reductive aging. The result is a fine wine in aromas, fresh, complex and expressive. In fact, Cerro Bercial Ladera Los Cantos was recently selected by the AKATAVINOS Guide as one of the best 400 wines made in Spain, with a score of 94.
Cerro Bercial Blanco Selección is a wine made with three varieties of grape, 45% Chardonnay, 40% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Macabeo, from which only the most aromatic, first obtained from a very soft first press is extracted. The fermentation is carried out at controlled temperature to maintain its maximum aromatic capacity. Later, it is transported to French oak barrels where it remains for three months with a slight removal on its fine lees, to culminate with a reductive breeding in steel deposit for nine months. In the tasting are combined with excellent citrus aromas, white flower and soft toasted memories.