De Muller Avreo Seco Anejo Solera 1954

【Over 160 Years of Winemaking History】

ZSP119-De Muller Avreo Seco Anejo Solera 1954

$165/btl

Bodegas de Muller, founded in 1851 in the Tarragona region of Spain, boasts 200 hectares of its own vineyards and a winemaking history spanning over 160 years. It supplied mass wine and red wine to popes from Pius X to John XXIII. In July 1904, during a visit to de Muller, King Alfonso XIII (King of Spain from 1886 to 1931) bestowed upon the company the honor of royal purveyor, along with the right to use the royal coat of arms on invoices and labels.

In 1995, the Martorell family acquired the winery and modernized it, preserving traditional techniques while introducing cutting-edge equipment such as stainless steel fermentation tanks and French/American oak barrels. Currently, the winery is led by winemaker Gemma Martínez, who strives to balance tradition with innovation, incorporating modern temperature control technology, such as the Solera system.

Tarragona, located approximately 25 kilometers from Barcelona, ​​Spain, has a Mediterranean climate with an average annual rainfall of 500 mm. Ribera experiences a harsh climate, with cold winters and hot summers, and has the lowest rainfall in the region (385 mm per year). While Tarragona's soils are characterized by calcareous topsoil, Ribera's soils are a mix of calcareous and alluvial.

The winery still uses 160-year-old oak barrels, the largest in Europe, each holding 55,000 liters.

This wine is aged using the Solera system, a group of oak barrels dating back to 1954. The Solera system consists of multiple layers of oak barrels, from which only 20%-30% of the wine is bottled each year, with the remainder blended with new wine to maintain flavor consistency. This "dynamic aging" technique allows the wine to gradually develop complex aromas of nuts, caramel, and spices during the oxidation process, while retaining fresh acidity. It is worth noting that Solera 1954 does not refer to the bottling year, but rather the starting year of the oldest layer of wine. The actual finished product is a blend of wines from different years spanning decades, reflecting the winery's precise control of time.