Variety: 92% Tinta de Toro, 8% Albillo Mayor

Winery: Oxer Bastegieta
Region: Grapes from Toro, made in Rioja

Production: 903 bottles

KUUSU takes us back to Oxer’s childhood, when he was a young boy and tasted his first wine. A Toro wine. He can still vividly remember the violet aroma’s. Now, over 30 years later, he found the opportunity to produce his own wine in the region where the seed for his wine path was planted.

Vineyards
A vineyard of 0,9ha located in Villabuena del Puente at over 600 metres of altitude, dating back to 1920. It has a sandy soil with a high quartz content and gives low yields of 2000 kg per hectare.

Winemaking
Fermentation takes place in open wooden vat, foudre and concrete egg, using indigenous yeasts. The wine ages for approximately 13 months in foudre.

Character
Kuusu is a very powerful wine. Punchy freshness and slightly chalky textured tannins. Flavours of black currant, black cherry, rose petal, dark chocolate and liquorice. Chili spiciness and savoury notes. All leading to a long concentrated finish.

What ́s in a name
Kuusu is the Basque name for a scarecrow, aka the Basque man in Toro, that chases away bad spirits. The back label cites John Keats: “The poetry of the Earth is never dead.” Poetry is everywhere, in the soil, in us, in the wine, in the sky.