Bodegas Barón de Ley is a respected Spanish wine producer with over 1,000 hectares of vineyards in the Rioja regions of Cenicero, Mendavia, Ausejo, and Carboneras. Barón de Ley's headquarters is located in Mendavia in a magnificent building complex that the Count of Eguía had built in 1548 as his fortress and fortification. Over the years, the estate became a Benedictine monastery where sheep were raised and wine was produced under the monks' command until 1836. After that, the estate was owned by many powerful men.
After several transitions, the estate came into the ownership of Barón de Ley's founders in the 1980s. The producer's large size doesn't prevent meticulous wine production. The entire vast harvest is picked by hand, and the best grapes are still sorted by hand. The cellar technology is state-of-the-art, and the wine is aged in 15,000 barrels of American and French oak in the traditional Rioja style. Bottle aging requires a refrigerated cellar for 4.5 million bottles. The extent of the vineyards and their many locations provide a palette for the range and quality from which Barón de Ley's reputation springs.
Baron de Ley Reserva
Baron de Ley Reserva is full-bodied, tannic, dark cherry, ripe cranberry, cloudberry, and lightly leathery, and it's also suitable for vegans.
The Tempranillo grapes are picked primarily from the Mendavia vineyards, where the 400-meter altitude and Mediterranean climate give the wine special concentration and fruitiness. 20 months of aging in new American oak barrels and two years of further aging in the bottle make the wine an enjoyably multi-dimensional experience.
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Baron de Ley Gran Reserva
Baron de Ley Gran Reserva is full-bodied, tannic, sour cherry, date-like, lightly chocolatey, subtly pencil-like, and oaky.
Its Tempranillo grapes are picked mainly from the Cenicero vineyards, where the slope orientation, old vines, and Atlantic climate are perfectly suited to this wine style. The wines age for two years in barrels, half of which are French oak and half American oak. Bottle aging requires another three years. The result is an aristocrat from which you can always expect a lot.
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