Blend: 70% Garnacha Tintorera, 30% Monastrell
Drink Window: 2022-2026
90 Points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Laya was produced with 70% Garnacha Tintorera and 30% Monastrell, looking for a fruit-driven and easy to drink red with 14.5% alcohol, ripe fruit and a soft texture. 2021 was warmer than the average but with some cold spells, especially the one in January called Filomena that brought lots of snow, despite which, it was also a dry year and they got up to 40% less grapes. This fermented in stainless steel vats with neutral yeasts, with malolactic in barrel, where the wine matured for four months. This shows some toasty oak, but it might be because it's too young and very recently bottled. But vintages seem to take oak differently; they believe this will show as integrated as the 2020. Time will tell. In any case, it's a wine for the short term, and it's very good for what it is. 360,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2022.
Winemaker Notes
Laya is a red wine from the the D.O. Almansa and produced by the Atlaya Winery. The winery is part of the Gil Family Estates group which ownes other known winerys such as the Juan Gil winery. The grapes come from the wineries own vineyards that lie at an altitude of 700-1000 metres above sea level, with limestone soils. The climate of the local area has a low level of rainfall.
Laya is a young red wine, yet previous vintages have achieved good marks from international critics. This, coupled with the low price, is what makes it such an attractive wine from a reletively unknown region.
