Bodegas Santa Rufina focuses on quality rather than quantity. They aim to produce quality wines that achieve both national and international recognition. These efforts are clearly tasted in this wine, which is powerful, expressive and full of fruit.
Good at:
Beef, lamb, chicken and turkey, veal, cheese – strong, cheese – mild, pork, fish – fatty
INTENSE AND EXPRESSIVE
Ubalinda appears with a nice ruby red color in the glass with purple, almost bluish reflections. The fragrance, which is extremely appealing and aromatic, is intense and full of fruit. The rich fruit from the aroma is repeated in the taste mixed with notes of oak, spices and vanilla. The overall experience is a well-balanced wine with good structure and a pleasant aftertaste.
Serve the wine with a selection of Spanish sausages, grilled meat or red meat.
Serving temperature: 18-20°C
Manufacturing
Ubalinda is made from 100% Tempranillo, which is grown on 30-40 year old vines. Although part of the winemaking is mechanized, the harvest is done by hand. The grapes are carefully selected precisely to ensure the quality of the finished product. The harvest starts at the end of September after several analyzes of the grapes to determine the ripeness of the grapes. The bunches are carefully cut by hand and transported to the winery as quickly as possible to preserve the grapes as intact as possible. After arrival at the winery, a further careful selection is made of the best bunches of grapes, which are de-stemmed and lightly pressed. Grape must and kvass are poured into stainless steel tanks, where the alcoholic fermentation takes place at a controlled temperature of between 28ºC and 32ºC during approx. 10 days. The wine is pressed from the lees, after which the malolactic fermentation takes place at 19-22ºC. After fermentation, the wine is aged for 14 months in oak barrels.
About the manufacturer
Bodegas Santa Rufina is located in Cubillas de Santa Marta in Valladolid and belongs to the designation of origin D.O. Cigales. The company is a family business, which was founded in 1997. However, their wines only came on the market in 2003. The winery has over 90 ha of vineyards, of which 80% are planted with Tempranillo, 10% with Merlot, 5% with Cabernet Sauvignon and the remaining 5 % with the two white wine grapes Verdejo and Albillo. The vineyards are all located around the winery, which reduces the transport time from when the grapes are harvested until they are received and processed at the winery. The soil consists of sand, limestone and white clay. Both the climate with high temperature differences from night to day and the stony soil conditions, which during the night give off the heat that the earth has absorbed during the day, make the vineyards particularly suitable for growing grapes.
