Albarroble Tinto Garnacha Tintorera
⏳ Drinking Window
2024 - 2027
🍷 Vintage Profile
The 2022 vintage across Almansa was characterized by an intensely hot, arid summer punctuated by severe, prolonged heatwaves throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Fortunately, the appellation's high elevation of 800 to 1,000 meters provided crucial nocturnal cooling, allowing old-vine Garnacha Tintorera to maintain essential organic acidity despite the thermal pressure. The extreme drought kept fungal pressure practically non-existent, favoring certified organic farming and resulting in deeply concentrated, small berries with fully polymerized tannins and opaque pigmentation. The vintage carries a solid regional reputation for producing robust, ripe reds; drinking well in 2026, it offers prime immediate enjoyment with the capacity to hold through 2028.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Grilled lamb chops, hearty beef stew, cured manchego cheese
✨ Technical Specifications
The 2022 Albarroble Tinto is a striking showcase of Garnacha Tintorera, a rare teinturier grape prized for its red flesh and deep, ink-like juice. Grown in the high-altitude, sun-drenched vineyards of Almansa where limestone-rich soils dominate, this vintage triumphed over a hot, dry growing season. The extreme diurnal temperature shifts of the high Spanish plateau preserved a vibrant, balancing acidity against the grape's naturally intense, concentrated dark fruit profile. Vinified to capture its youthful energy, the wine offers a sensory journey through wild blackberries, sweet spices, and a distinct, stony minerality that reflects its rugged terroir.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1947 by 25 local viticulturists in the municipality of Alpera within Albacete, Bodegas Santa Cruz de Alpera serves as a benchmark cooperative enterprise in the D.O. Almansa. Situated in southeastern Spain at elevated altitudes exceeding 800 meters above sea level, the estate's extensive vineyards span limestone-rich, organic-poor soils subject to a stark continental climate modulated by Mediterranean influences. The winery oversees approximately 3,000 hectares of vineyard area, of which over 1,000 hectares are certified organic. Viticulture centers overwhelmingly on old-vine, bush-trained Garnacha Tintorera (Alicante Bouschet)—a red-fleshed teinturier grape indigenous to the local terroir. Winemaking combines temperature-controlled stainless steel fermentation and judicious oak maturation to preserve primary fruit intensity while mitigating harsh extraction. Benchmark bottlings include the Albarroble, Rupestre de Alpera, and Cueva del Chamán ranges, which showcase the varietal's distinctive combination of opaque crimson color, plush black fruit, balsamic lift, and structured, mineral-tinged tannins.
🍇 Grapes
Garnacha Tintorera
🍷 ABV
14.5%