Marques de Caceres Rioja Gaudium 2020 SF Chronicle Sordo is the only producer

Sordo is the only producer outside the Mascarello family making wine from this southwest-facing site in Castiglione Falletto

dark berries and pure agave flavor

with sweet tannins that frame rather than clobber

Hand-harvested

this village-level Vosne-Romanée shows the region's natural elegance

Marques de Caceres Rioja Gaudium 2020 SF Chronicle Sordo is the only producerThis is the bottle Marques de Caceres makes when it wants to prove a point. Gaudium (Latin for joy) comes from tiny old vine plots scattered across Rioja Alta and the high terraces of Rioja Alavesa, some vines over seventy years old and a few pre phylloxera survivors past a century. Yields are brutal by design, under a kilo of fruit per plant, and the grapes are hand picked in small boxes and sorted cluster by cluster before native yeast fermentation