Limited Extraordinary Spanish Wines!
by James Robinson, Your Co-op Sommelier
Spanish wine lovers and those keen on low-intervention natural wines have much to celebrate this week at the Food Co-Op. On Saturday, we received a special shipment of extremely limited, highly allocated wines from importer Jose Pastor.
For those unfamiliar with the portfolio, Jose Pastor offers extraordinary wines of unmatched quality and verve from some of Spain’s best and brightest winemakers. Across the board, the wines hum with authenticity and a sense of place. Moreover, the Pastor wines are some of the most ‘hands-off’ wines made in the world today, what we call ‘low intervention wines’ – no chemicals, no added sulfur – just the magical, ethereal interplay of winemaker, fruit and place.
Goyo Garcia Viadero
Viadero comes from one of the most respected winemaking families in the Ribera del Duero. Greatly inspired by natural winemakers, like Pierre Overnoy from the Jura, Viadero started to farm and produce his own naturally made wines in 2003.
Viadero farms single plots in the heart of Ribera del Duero, near the town of Roa, almost all of them interplanted with small percentages of white grapes, on different soil types and altitudes. The idea is to rekindle the past and let the vineyard – rather than each individual grape variety – fully express itself. To accomplish that, he works with old, traditionally head-pruned vines, harvests first for acidity, and then co-ferments red with white grapes together, as things were originally done in Ribera del Duero.
All of his wines are de-stemmed, fermented exclusively with wild yeast, and no added sulfur. The wines are raised in old French barrels at an underground, 4th century cueva located in Gumiel del Mercado.
Joven de Vina Viejas 2018 – six bottles available
This is Viadero’s only non-oaked red wine, from a dry-farmed, high elevation vineyard planted entirely to Tempranillo. The grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed and fermented with wild yeasts in steel tank with three months of skin maceration, then raised entirely in tank before being bottled without fining, filtration or the addition of sulfur. This is a classic, young Ribera del Duero with vibrancy and a fabulous tension between dark fruit, florals, minerals, and acidity.
Georgieva Malvasia 2019 – six bottles available
This slighly orange wine is made from centenarian vines of Albillo & Malvasia, hand-harvested, destemmed, and pressed in an old-fashioned basket press. The wine is fermented with wild yeasts in steel vat with about 25 days skin contact, and then raised in the same vat on fine lees, bottled in early spring without fining, filtration or added sulfur. The resultant wine possesses a light orange hue and grippy texture, floral aromatics and yellow orchard fruit balanced with refreshing acidity.
Finca Los Quemados Clarete 2019 – six bottles available
This single vineyard is planted entirely to Tempranillo at high elevation. The grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed and fermented with wild yeasts in steel tank with 3 months of skin maceration, then raised 12 months in eight to 10 year-old French oak barriques. Bottling is without fining, filtration or any addition of sulfur. This is a classic Ribera del Duero with fabulous tension between dark fruit, florals, minerals and acidity.
Envínate
Envínate (translates as "wine yourself") is the brainchild of four friends, winemakers Roberto Santana, Alfonso Torrente, Laura Ramos, and José Martínez. This gang of four formed back in 2005 while studying enology at the University of Miguel Hernandez in Alicante. Upon graduation, they formed a winemaking consultancy, which evolved into Envínate – a project that focuses on exploring distinctive parcels mainly in the Atlantic-inflected regions of Ribeira Sacra and the Canary Islands. Their collective aim is to make profoundly pure and authentic wines that express the terruño of each parcel in a clear and concise manner. To this end, no chemicals are used in any of the Envínate vineyards, all parcels are picked by hand, the grapes are foot-trodden, and the wines are fermented exclusively with wild yeasts, with a varying proportion of whole grape clusters included. For aging, the wines are raised in old barrels and concrete, with minimal additions of sulfur. The results are some of the most exciting and honest wines produced in Spain today.
Albahra 2019 – six bottles available
A blend of 70% Garnacha Tintorera and 30% Moravia Agria. All grapes are hand-harvested and vinified separately by parcel. The Garnacha Tintorera is foot-trodden in vat with 30-50% stems included and six to 10 days skin maceration, then fermented and raised on fine lees in concrete for eight months. The Moravia Agria is completely destemmed and sees seven days maceration before being pressed and raised on fine lees. The wine is then blended and bottled unfined, unfiltered. This is a wine with a pure high-toned nose, floral red fruit, with hints of spice and bursting with minerality – an extremely versatile food wine, especially with Mediterranean meats and seafood.
Benje Tinto 2019 – six bottles available
Benje Tinto is sourced from 1,000 meters elevation, old-vine parcels of Listan Prieto, located in Santiago del Teide. Each parcel is hand-harvested and vinified separately, some in concrete and some in small open tubs. Bottling is without fining, filtration or added sulfur. This is a pure and vertical expression of high elevation, volcanic Canary Islands terroir with notes of red fruits, peppercorns, flowers, and volcanic soil – a beautiful wine to pair with grilled meats.
Oriol Artigas
Judging by the critical success of Artigas’ wine production in Cataluña, one might be forgiven for assuming that wine had always been his passion. But like many other organic wine producers, the call to the vineyard was one heard later in life, after starting out wanting to be a chemist. It was only after he worked on a harvest in Penedes that winemaking won its place as the main focus in Artigas’ life, prompting him to study winemaking and eventually move his experimentation out of the lab and into the field.
His over-arching philosophy is to, “Cultivate the vineyards in the most natural and least interventionist way possible, to allow the grapes to express in the most intense way the landscape from which they come.”
La Rumbera Blanco 2019 – six bottles available
La Rumbera is comprised of Pansa Blanca from 7 different parcels planted on granitic soils around Alella. The wine is fermented with wild yeasts in stainless steel, with two hours to two days skin contact, depending on the maturation of the grape. The wine is then raised on the lees in steel vat for six months before being bottled without fining or filtration or added sulfur.
El Rumbero Tinto 2019 – six bottles available
A blend of Garnacha, Syrah and Merlot, grown near the sea and macerated whole bunch, some of which are direct press. Aging occurs in stainless steel before being bottled without fining, filtration or added sulfur. The result is a beautifully floral, ethereal wine, brimming with authenticity, subtlety and grace.
Oriental Blanc and Oriental Negre 2019 – three bottles of each available
The Bardissots wines are a collaboration between Oriol Artigas and his former students Pepe and Pilar, and the Oriental labels are the newest additions to the line up. From young (six year old) vines of Moscatel (the white) and Ull de Llebre (also known as Tempranillo, for the red) planted in sandy soils by the beach near Alella, that are harvested quite early. These are light, fresh, natural wines with lots of Mediterranean character. The white, which sees six days of gentle skin contact, is appealing and refreshing with just a touch of Muscat floral character next to refreshing notes of lemon and sea-salt. Great fun! Ben Fletcher