letuffeau.com
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Upcoming Events
This Thursday
13/08
A Balgownie Schwanengesang
A Most Special Dinner with Joshua Cooper
$275.00 per ticket - 2 seats remaining
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2019 Chardonnay ‘Cope-Williams Vineyard’
2018 Chardonnay ‘Old Port Righ’
2018 Chardonnay ‘Captains Creek’
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2025 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Dash Farms'
2024 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Blanche Barkley'
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2022 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Balgownie Old Vines'
2024 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Balgownie Old Vines'
2021 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Balgownie Old Vines'
2025 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Balgownie Old Vines'
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2022 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Old Vines Cuvee'
2024 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Old Vines Cuvee'
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This Saturday
15/08
2.00-4.00pm
FREE TASTING
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Meet the Winemaker
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Alessandro Stefani 2024 Vintage Launch
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“Akutain is the classical under-the-radar winery from Rioja, created in 1978. After tasting their wines in my last review of the region, I decided I needed to visit them to know them better and understand what they are doing, which follows the most orthodox classicism I know together with Lopez de Heredia.”
— Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (Jan, 2026)
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“Akutain has the potential to become – if it is not already – a cult wine, one of those bottles found on the lists of great restaurants, carrying the aura of a grand classical estate. Time will tell.”
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“I can understand why Akutain is a trendy winery for many sommeliers seeing a great classic work that has to be rediscovered. It looks like old winemaking used to be, and there is very intriguing work with the old barrels. … It is like tasting the past, and I can only be thankful that this type of winemaking still exists.”
— Ferran Centelles - former Sommelier at El Bulli, writing for jancisrobinson.com
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Akutain
Haro, Rioja Alta
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“It should be apparent at this point in time, dear Readers, that I am an afficionado of great old-school Rioja. In particular, the orthodox R. Lopez de Heredia, and the classical La Rioja Alta and Hermanos Pecina.
These wines are immensely redolent of their traditions; the vineyard characteristics couched in the ur-terroir of the cellar and human legacy. Akutain, as noted above by critic Luis Guttierez, is a producer following ‘the most orthodox classicism’.
What allies these wines with those of R. Lopez de Heredia, beyond the dedication to the delicate handling of the fruit, and fine fruit it is, and long and classically interventionist elevage, is the similar conditions of the cellar. A link in the ur-terroir. Both bodegas age their wine in barrel and then in bottle underground, in ‘wet’ cellars as opposed to above-ground ‘dry’ cellars. The wines are very influenced by the atmosphere of the cellar with minimal oxidation on account of an equally humid atmophere outside of the barrel. The wines assume notes of wet limestone, unsmoked cigars, earth, and almost indescribable mineral and earthen characters that may only be compared to the aromas of caves and cellars. Telluric.
I am most impressed by the Akutain wines. For those who covet R. Lopez de Heredia. Highly reccomended.”
— David
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“Today, the three sons of founder Jose Penagaricano Akutain, who unfortunately died in April 2021, lead the projects, especially the youngest, Jon Penagaricano Hoeks, CEO since 2012. The founder and their winemaker, Angel Olmos, were friends and protegees of people like Basilio Izquierdo and Ezequiel Garcia, some of the best-known old-timers from Rioja.
It's a chateau-style property, and they only vinify grapes from their own vineyards, with five plots planted between 1975 and 2016 (this last one 0.12 hectares of Maturana Tinta) around the winery that make up some 6.5 hectares of vine in total, in the villages of Villalba, Haro, Anguciana, Cihuri and Sajazarra in the Obarenes Mountains in Rioja Alta.
Their methods are classical Rioja: They don't use herbicides or chemicals but are not certified. They vinify each vineyard separately in stainless steel and fiberglass. They don't filter, use cold stabilization, and they let the wines decant and use minimal SO2. They use mostly used American oak barrels that are racked manually one by one and always into the same barrel, and each barrel is tasted and handled individually. They only produce 35,000 to 40,000 bottles per vintage.”
— Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
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~ please note : orders by reply email ~
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Akutain 2020 Rioja Crianza
(Shelf Price: $70.00)
Offer: $62.00
6-pack: $330.00 ($55/bottle)
“The very traditional 2020 Crianza was produced, like always, with 93% Tempranillo, 5% Garnacha and 2% white Viura and was bottled at 13.73% alcohol, reflecting a warmer and more powerful year. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and fiberglass tanks for eight days and matured in used barrels (70% American, the rest French) for 24 months, a slow and much longer aging than required for the category. It has abundant spice, smoke and notes of cigar box and is still young, with wild berries and herbs and textbook traditional Rioja aromas, texture and flavors. It has a medium-bodied palate with a velvety texture and fine tannins. 9,900 bottles were filled in September 2023.”
92pts — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
By reply email only, please
also available
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“… the only Gran Reserva rose other than the one from Lopez de Heredia-Vina Tondonia …”
Akutain 2016 Rioja Rosado Gran Reserva
1 bottle available
Offer: $255.00
“A rose that expresses evolution and with marked oak. I can understand why Akutain is a trendy winery for many sommeliers seeing a great classic work that has to be rediscovered. It looks like old winemaking used to be, and there is very intriguing work with the old barrels. … It is like tasting the past, and I can only be thankful that this type of winemaking still exists.”
— Ferran Centelles, jancisrobinson.com
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“The 2016 Rosado Gran Reserva is the only Gran Reserva rose other than the one from Lopez de Heredia-Vina Tondonia. It will will be released in September 2022 and is only the second vintage of this wine, and the next one will be the 2020. It's a complex and elegant rose that transcends the category. It's produced with Tempranillo from a specific vineyard, the one at higher altitude (650 meters), planted in 1986 on a north-facing, 2.48-hectare plot by the Gembres Rocks that delivered a wine with 14% alcohol and a pH of 3.32. They bleed some 500 liters of wine from the tank before it gets too dark and ferment it in a small 600-liter vat for seven days with indigenous yeasts and block malolactic fermentation; the wine is kept in tank throughout the winter, during which time it's racked twice to have it very clear before it goes into barrel. The elevage was in two barrels—one French and one American—where they had aged the 2015 Gran Reserva red, where the wine matured for 52 months. The wine
was bottled without being fined, cold stabilized or filtered, just strained to avoid particles in the bottles. It has notes of red candied fruit, hard candy, nuts, spices, bread dough and cereals, with some development. The palate is polished and has a soft texture. Only 600 bottles were filled in July 2021.”
92pts — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
By reply email only, please.
III
“a cult wine”
Akutain 2016 Rioja Gran Reserva
2 bottles available
Offer: $155.00
“The 2015 Gran Reserva should be released around September 2022, and it's a classical, long-aging red produced with selected grapes from their oldest vineyards, the one around the winery planted in 1975 and Gembres from 1986. It fermented with indigenous yeasts for nine days followed by malolactic in tank and a slow decantation before being racked into well-seasoned, neutral oak barrels, 70% of them American and the rest French, where the wine matured for 47 months. They only produce this wine in exceptional years, and it had not been produced since 2004! It's really interesting to taste the Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva from 2015 together, as I did, because the progression from one to the next is pretty obvious, how each wine is a lot more complex, compete and deep. There's a lot of power here; there's plenty of tannins, but the tannins are very high quality. This is a great classical Gran Reserva that should make old bones and age in the style of the great classical wines from Rioja.
9,000 bottles were filled in August 2020.”
95pts — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
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“Tasted blind. Coffee, chocolate, cocoa and forest floor define a wine shaped by its long ageing. On the palate, it is smooth, with fully integrated, resolved tannins, classically styled, yet with toasted oak aromas seamlessly merging into notes of confit cassis. Elegant and beautifully nuanced by time, finishing with long, expansive chocolate notes on the back palate. Unmistakably a Rioja Gran Reserva. Akutain has the potential to become – if it is not already – a cult wine, one of those bottles found on the lists of great restaurants, carrying the aura of a grand classical estate. Time will tell.”
17.5/20pts — Ferran Centelles, jancisrobinson.com
By reply email only, please.
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Please join us for a drink soon. Reservations preferred.
Bookings and after-6.00pm access: (03) 9419 3867
Tue. 11.00 am–6.00 pm
Wed.–Sat. 11.00 am–11.00 pm
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If you would like any of the above, would like to come by for a private appointment, or just have some questions — please let us know.