Lagalin
The Chicken Cycle
A sommelier throws bottles, lots of bottles…
During his time at elBulli, David Seijas had a recurring thought as he transported the empty bottles to the garbage area. How could this magnificent glass end up in the recycling bin? Do these bottles really only have one life? Years later, at the present moment, these reflections are more important than ever and we recover them with a new question: Why must all the wines of the same brand have the same bottle?
With this project, we aim to make our contribute to raising awareness of the need to reuse bottles, in a complementary way to recycling. We believe that a different future is possible and have worked alongside Albert Adrià’s Enigma restaurant to create a new wine cycle. Each bottle enjoyed in the restaurant is collected and managed with care by the POTS company, which prepares the containers so that they can be used again. The cycle is completed in the cellar of Olga Verde, vintner and our guardian at the Bierzo, where it transforms into Lagalin, to start a new cycle. The whole project is generated from this look, from the cubist label to the selected materials or the boxes, inside which you will find the same wine in 6 different outfits, which gives us gallina de piel. How about you?
APELLATION BIERZO
Our secrets
Winemaking
Manual harvest in 16 kg cases only in the morning. Upon arrival at the cellar, fermentation in open tanks with 30% brush, pressing with the feet to break the bunch a little. The rest of the 70% of the cluster is destemmed. Spontaneous fermentation in 48 hours with manual stirring twice a day. Maceration with skins for 12-15 days. Transfer to another tank and manually pressed with a wooden screw press. Malolactic in stainless steel tank and then transferred to 225L barrels. Aging for 10 months in French barrels without decanting with weekly refills. Empty barrels without clarification or stabilization, with a light filter of 3 microns. Final analysis and bottling.
Sulphurous: Before entering the cellar, after malolactic fermentation, and before bottling.
General
Wine facts
Vineyard: La Madroñal
Latitude/Longitude: 28º 23’ N / 16º 38’ O
Altitude: 563m above sea level
Soils: Clay with pebbles
Climate: Continental/Atlantic
Varieties: 94% Mencía, 6% Merenzao
Vine age: > 80 years
Analysis
Alcohol: 13% vol.
Total acidity (tartaric): 4,82 g/l
Volatile acidity (acetic): 0,74 g/l
pH: 3,97
Total SO2: 40 mg/l
Sugars: <0,20 g/l
Vintage 2022
We are facing a harvest marked by intense heat waves and severe drought in the summer months.
This abnormally dry situation has made us rethink viticulture, in our race towards a more sustainable farming model, avoiding defoliation, changing the management of plant covers, pruning, etc.
The positive part of this climatic circumstance is the sanitary state of the plants, there have been no cryptogamic diseases and we have solved the campaign with very few phytosanitary treatments.
Already close to the harvest, we could observe a somewhat irregular ripening, again caused by the high temperatures, although it is true that the scarce rainfall in August and September helped to overcome the situation and for the plants to come out of their blocking.
Once the harvest has been completed and with all the grapes in the cellar, we can say that we have an average and very healthy harvest.
Tasting notes
The color it is cherry red, translucent, and bright. The nose is fresh and fruity, where forest fruits stand out, typical of the more fragrant Mencías, as well as the red fruit of the Merenzao. As for the flowers, we find violets and jasmine, complemented by the mineral and herbaceous notes typical of the purest Bierzo. It has a fruity and delicate palate, very fresh and with a very persistent finish.
