Gregory Perez is a Bordeaux educated oenologist, and his worked with both Grand-Puy-Lacoste and Cos d’Estournel. With roots in Spanish Bierzo, in northwestern Castilla bordering Galicia, he moved there in the early 2000’s.
After his first steps in France, his roots and a friend´s encouragement brought him to Spain, the Bierzo region, to be exact. There he embarked on a project called Mengoba, where he shares a philosphy with many of his generation, which highlights the personality of the various plots, leading to the production of original natural wines.
Pérez has acquired a deep knowledge of the soil and the ecosystem, and the work is carried out with the utmost respect of the land. Use of herbicides is prohibited, and the vineyards are ploughed. He also regards low yields as essential, to ensure ripeness and concentration.
The mencía vineyards are located in Espanillo by the River Cúa, more than 80 year old vines between 700 and 850 meters, and 30 years old garnacha tintorera vines lower down at 550 meters in Valtuille, closer to Cacabelos. The grapes were de-stemmed and crushed, followed by tradicional vinification with pumping over during the alcoholic fermentation in big vats, and aged in the same big vats of 5000 liters for 6 months.
Flor de Brezo obviously takes its name from the area designation Bierzo.
Flor de Brezo 2013 (Gregory Pérez)
Dark red. Aroma of flowers and red berries with herbs. Luscious and juicy in the mouth with soft tannins and a lovely coolness.
Carmenère, of Bordeaux origin, has been found in Chile for more than 100 years – and has in recent times become something of a “national grape”, or at least a point of reference for the country. De Martino (see also here) is said to be the first to bottle it, after its identification as late as in 1991. Their grapes come from the Alto de Piedras vineyard, the same place as the first carmenère was identified.
In this part of Maipo we find a climate similar to the Mediterranean, mild with dry summer. The difference between night and day varies in summer from 14 to 29°C. The soils are alluvial, from the Maipo river.
The family has always wanted to create wines that reflect their origin. The wine is completely organic, like all the wines they make, and they claim it’s suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
Nuevo Mundo Carmenère 2014(De Martino)
Developed red. Aroma of strawberries, as well as fruits from the forest and some spices. Juicy mouthfeel, fresh, but well-integrated acidity.
Ramón Saavedra is waiting in the main square when I arrive in Graena, a small village east of Granada. Otherwise it might have been difficult to find his home among all the other houses that apparently look the same.
Apparently. Because, as we shall see, when we enter the bodega area behind the house this is all but ordinary.
The municipality is called Cortes y Graena and is comprised of four villages. The word Graena is of Arabic origin, and the caves are a legacy of the Arab Andalusian period. A most special feature here are the thermal waters. In fact the name of the bodega is also inspired by the Moors; al-cauzon meaning something like the land of the sand.
Ramón Saavedra returned to his village to take over inherited land that he later planted with vines. He had then been working with Manuel Valenzuela of Barranco Oscuro, to help with pruning etc. In 1998 his first harvest was finally bottled.
The soil is sandy-clayey and calcareous with big, round stones. There is continental climate, with extreme summers with more than 25ºC difference between day and night in the maturation period.
It’s a perfect place to make organic and natural wines, but since his own wines express such a crystal clear idea, I’m maybe a bit surprised by Ramón’s pragmatic attitude about the trade in general.
-Well, for me it’s not only about health, it’s about the balance in nature. I wish that my wine should expressing the earth. But I respect everybody. However I wish that the communication is clear, what you say is what you do.
The grape variety next to the caves is garnacha. -I love the green, living colour, says Ramón
We are 1.080 meters above sea level, and some of the vineyards are at 1.200 meters.
Ecological cultivation, manual harvest, natural production. Wines without added sulfites and fermented with their own yeasts. Without additives of any kind. Its maximum annual production is 20,000 bot.
There are 7 parcels and a total of 6 hectars, all in the Graena village. Here are a lot of field blends from the old days. The cactus both delimits the vineyards and have a function in the biodiversity. Sheep compost is used as fertilizer.
-The panjil tree (also called Bohemian olive, or olive of Paradise) has a strong and inviting aroma, so the insects come here instead of attacking the vineyards, says Ramón. The Moorish people had a lot of knowledge about this.
Work has begun to make a new bodega
-In the old times people were living here. Now I also see a possibility for tourism. We wish to offer a form of rural accommodation here.
Thumbs up for a new bodega within two years!
We had the time for a tasting too. I will not bore my reader with the tank and barrel samples along the way. But here is a brief tale about the bottled wines. The white Cauzón 2015 from torrontés and some chardonnay, viognier and sauvignon blanc was dark orange, very juicy, grapey, elegant and smooth, but very sapid too. Duende 2015, a dark syrah from 1.200 meters of altitude, had violet, eucalyptus and other balsamic notes, wild berries and leather, nice fruit in the mouth, with bright acidity and pleasant tannins. The 6,5 grams of acidity comes from the high altitude.
Cauzón 2015 red from tempranillo was difficult because of the lack of rain. Therefore we don’t find the same fruitiness, says Ramón, who is quick to fetch the same wine in version 2014, just to compare. This one clearly has more fruity berry notes, spice, and it tastes younger, overall. The Ira Dei 2014, tempranillo (or tinta fina), garnacha, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, partly from ungrafted stocks, has ripe fruit, some lickorice, but also a lot of freshness. The mouthfeel is quite dry due to more maceration of the three last grapes, but the fruit is there all the time. Lastly we tasted the Pi Noir 2014, and this was a concentrated pinot, also with some volatile, but with a fruity aroma with red berries in the forefront. Cauzor 2009 showed some sign of ageing towards the rim, but was in a good shape. It has some plum confit in the aroma, but there are fresh fruits too, and is delicious now.
Ramón Saavedra, always energetic and enthusiastic, and a distinctive voice on the Spanish wine-scene
This is a project that started in the late 80s, formed by Swiss Georg and Ruth Fromm together with winemaker Hatsch Kalberer, all of them with knowledge about the wines of both European and New Zealand. It didn’t take long before they decided to join forces, set up a winery in Marlborough, and the first plantings were done in 1992. The Fromm’s returned to Switzerland some years ago, but Hatsch continues to release one superb wine after another, not least the country’s oldest single vineyard malbec, called “H” for Hatsch.
This wine is a 100% pinot noir. It was spontaneously fermented in steel tanks with a long maceration. 
Fromm La Strada Pinot Noir 2014(Fromm Winery)
Brilliant ruby red. Fresh on the nose, with raspberries, plums and aromatic herbs. Luscious, rounded mouthfeel, long aftertaste with a well-integrated acidity that lasts all the way. It has stayed on the shelves for some time (2015 also released), and must be near its peak now.
Price: Medium
Food: Veal and pig, duck and chicken, salads, tapas
Rita Marques is one of the new Douro comets. She has some terrific reds, such as a very personal take on the red bastardo variety, and some good ports too. But it’s maybe the whites that most of all cought my attention from the beginning, with their purity, freshness and elegance.
She is found by the Teja river, a tributary to the Douro that ends near Symington’s Vesúvio estate.
This wine is made from very old vines, primarily of the rabigato and côdega do larinho varieties (40% each), with arinto.
The must was spontaneously fermented and raised in inox tanks and used oak, with 5 months on the lees. It clocks in at a mere 13% alcohol.
Contraste Branco 2016(Conceito Vinhos)
Light yellow, greenish hue. Flowery aroma, slightly waxy, with peaches and pears, and herbs underneath. Full on the palate, a salty minerality and with a limey acidity in a long aftertaste.
Price: Low
Food: Grilled seafood, white fish, some bacalhau dishes, salads
In the Cuenca province, along the road between Madrid and Albacete, we find Dominio de Punctum. When we visited some years ago the Fernández family already impressed with splendid value wines from rather young vines. The quality is steadily improving since then.
Their production comes from their own vineyards, the “Finca Fabián” estate that currently includes more than 200 hectares. Here they have always worked in a traditional organic way, now biodynamic practises mark a further step.
Visit in the vineyard
This wine, with the denomination Tierra de Castilla, is made from tempranillo 70%, complemented with petit verdot. As many will know, tempranillo is the prevailing Spanish grape, earlier called cencibel here (a fact people seem to have forgotten). Petit verdot is known from Bordeaux, but has long become a classic in Spain. Harvest was done at night, fermentation with natural yeasts carried out in inox between 24º and 27º C, and finally the wine was only lightly filtered.
Dominio de Punctum Tempranillo-Petit verdot 2016(Dom. de Punctum)
Cherry red with violet rim. Notes of red berries, some blackberry and herbs. Tasty, with rounded tannins, and quite persistent.
Price: Low
Food: Light meat, salads, pasta, hard cheeses (such as the local manchego), assorted tapas
It seems to be a day for everything. Since 2011 the TAPAS (‘tempranillo advocates, producers and amigos society’) of North America has celebrated this grape, the world’s 4th in extension.
They picked the second Thursday in November, which means the coming 9th November this year. And many of the grape’s many international followers have – followed.
I miss no opportunity to open a bottle of tempranillo wine. They come in many variations, different clones and synonyms too (more than 60 in its native Spain alone), but one clone has the ability to show huge differences in terroir.
Needless to say, there are a huge amount of wines to chose from. I select one from my most recent wine trip, that included one day in Rioja. Here Sandra Bravo has released some magnificent and original wines since 2012. The clayey/chalky vineyards are found at 650 meters altitude between Labastida and the Sierra de Toloño (a part of the Cantabrian mountain range). The wines are kept in a rented bodega in Villabuena de Álava – all this to the east-northeast of Haro, for those who are not quite familiar with the landscape.
The wine in question is her “basic” red. It was in fact the first wine in Rioja to be elevated in clay amphora. There are now several vintages on the market. I chose 2014 as I think it has a perfect development right now, though it will keep. The cultivation is organic, the must was fermented with natural yeasts in steel, clay and cement, and it spent some 6 months in used French oak barrels.
Sierra de Toloño 2014(Sierra de Toloño)
Dark cherry red. Floral, cool fruit, with red berries (cherry, blackberry), herbs, and a slight dark (roasted, coffee) tone. Very elegant, quite slender, with appealing acidity and developing tannins.
Price: Medium
Food: Red and light meat, game, salads, light stews, hard cheeses
Los Patios de Beatas is a favourite in Málaga, and whenever I arrive in the city it will never take long untill I head for a table in that culinary palace, hotel and cultural oasis.
Speaking of tables, please allow me a short sidestep before we get back to the restaurant. My wife had since she first saw the tables in the street and in the restaurant been an admirer of the work. So she took a picture of the signature, and looked up a facebook site. We soon found out that the artist lived in Mijas village. So we went to Mijas. There were no signs, no directions. But we didn’t give up: We talked to some locals, knocked on some doors, and suddenly we found ourselves in the artist’s living-room.
Joshua Van Den Eeden is of American and Flemish descendant; his parents met in Torremolinos in the 1960’s, and you have already realized that there is a romantic story that could be told. But we must make a short-cut: Joshua is now established with his home-workshop and gallery in Mijas. His tables are made of concrete, and the plates of copper and calcium. The turquoise colour comes from a reaction with air. Finally a glacier is put on top of it, to keep it from further development.
Joshua van den Eeden
Among other projects are benches for the Mijas municipality. So remember, next time you are there you will maybe sit on the artwork that you see here. The wine map to the left is for a friend. Take a closer look, and you will see a more detailed map of Rioja than the current official one. (You can find more info here.)
Back in the old town of Málaga, Beatas is a small street where the people behind the restaurant have rehabilitated two houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, both architectural pearls of historic importance, and both with beautiful patios. This is the background to the restaurant’s name.
Julián Sanjuan
The driving force behind the project is Julián Sanjuán, who has studied oenology in Málaga and got his sommelier degree from Barcelona, and had already opened málaga wine museums both Ojén and Mijas, small towns in the Málaga province. He established Los Patios in 2012, and last year he also created a professional sommelier association in Málaga. With his network it’s then easy to understand why the restaurant is full of dedicated sommeliers that know how to describe a wine, and has the knowledge to pair wine and food successfully.
In the main floor there are three rooms with open doors between them, two are more normal restaurants, and one cosy bar where you sit on high stools at van den Erden’s tables. You can also buy the bottles that you see around you in the room and bring them home with you. In the next floor there are two dining rooms, a tasting room with natural light from an inside patio, and in the other jazz and flamenco concerts are held once in a while. The familiy also runs a small hotel in the other building.
Key words are varied wines from all over Spain (and some from outside), and creative dishes based on seasonal products. Worth mentioning, this is snob-free zone, and all the wines are for drinking, more than 500 references in total. Some restaurants with a much shorter wine-list have some show-wines like Vega Sicilias in old vintages that noone has the wallet to buy. Here there are a few really expensive wines, but the difference is -and while we are talking about Ribera del Duero- that the most expensive Vegas and Sastres are a logical continuation of an extensive list of wines from the Ribera. For Andalusian wines I can only think of one contender, Armando Guerras place in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. (Read about him here.) But for wines from the Málaga province you simply go to Los Patios.
After so many visits it’s difficult to pick just a few wines. I have tasted many local and regional wines, such as Sedella and Schatz from the Málaga province, the sherries of Ramiro Ibañez and Equipo Navazos from Cádiz. Sparklers from Recaredo (Cava), whites from Lagar de Pintos (Rías Baixas)and Avanthia (Valdeorras) and developed reds from Álvaro Palacios (Priorat), Ánima Negra (Mallorca) and Dominio de Atauta (Ribera del Duero) will rarely disappoint.
My last visit was earlier this year. I will always discuss with the sommeliers, of course, but this is the kind of place that I can let them get the last word, and I can easily trust that the wine will be good and the pairings successful. This time the first wine was Igualado 2014 a red blend from nearby Ronda bodega Joaquín Fernández. Dark, young colour; balsamic aroma (mint), peppery and spicy, with mature tannins, that went well with “ternera con foie” (veal with foie gras), even if I would suspect the wine to be too dominant. Next was “texturas de panceta”, different textures of pork belly, served with green puré and fennel. the different ingredients blended superbly, and the wine that Julián suggested, Vetus 2011 from Toro (dark, red berries, blackcurrant, morello and a touch of minty oak, mature and integrated tannins, a very elegant Toro) was interesting to see with the varying textures of the food.
Veal with fois, and a glass of Igualado
The Vetus bottle, and Julián talking to the next table
After numerous visits to central Spain I have learned to know Daniel Jiménez-Landi (now of Comando G fame and a great ambassador of the light extraction garnacha style). Here we could savour one of his earlier offerings, the Piélago 2010. This Méntrida garnacha was quite hard in its younger years, but after some time in Los Patios’ cellar it had mellowed, and it was perfect with the lamb and quinoa dish.
Piélago with lamb and quinoa
This was a unusual night in that we had only red wines. But you don’t always need to start with a champagne and end with a dessert wine and a grappa, do you? This particular night we ended with the fabulous Acinipo 2006 from a good friend, Ronda wine producer Friedrich Schatz. And this because the party had already wanted to order a plate of cheeses, a selection with predominantly hard cheeses, so I thought why not. Schatz is originally from Süd-Tirol, and the wine is made from the variety lemberger, a synonym for blaufränkisch. It’s quite different from the more northern-eastern wines though. Named after the Roman ruins further down the road, this wine is quite full-bodied with the dryness in the aftertaste that can be found in this producer’s wines, a feature that makes them go well with a variety of dishes.
On your first visit to Málaga, go to El Pimpi and the Antigua Casa de Guardia, because they are picturesque places and important for the city’s culinary history, and you will get decent tapas there. But once familiar with Málaga they are maybe not the places you will keep coming back to. Los Patios is a place that you never get tired of.
This is a very good value Valpolicella. The winery is established in an aristocratic villa from the 16th century, and has a beautiful agriturismo on the estate. The estate totals 400 hectares, including three vineyards on three different hills, with differences in soil composition and orientation.
This wine comes from the Monte del Drago hill, with a total vineyard area of 8 hectares. There are also some young (white) garganega and pinot bianco plantings, but the vines that gives the fruit to the Drago wine is mainly corvina planted in the 1990’s. The exposition is west, and the soil is tuff with white clay. 
The grapes are organically cultivated, and biodynamic techniques are also employed. Corvina makes up the highest proportion of the blend (60%), the rest corvinone, and 5% each of rondinella and, maybe a surprise: barbera. Winemaker Maddalena Pasqua let it rest for 12 months in French oak, which is barely noticeable.
Drago Valpolicella Superiore 2015 (Musella)
Quite dark red, blueish hint. Aroma of dark and red berries (cherry), some herbs. Young, lucious, tasty and with a fresh acidity.
This marked the conclusion of a wine trip. Our theme was three wine regions in old Castilla. But we also had some occasional wines from other areas.
The Gastroteca is a wine bar, or restaurant, in a small chain of restaurants and a shop. It’s run by a handful of sommeliers. Tabernero and Matritum are other Madrid wine bars in the chain, and the one with special responsabililty for this place is Juan Carlos Ramos. The restaurant is located on the Plazuela de Santiago, close to the royal palace, and not far from the central tourist spot Puerta del Sol.
The Gastroteca de Santiago is a small restaurant, or wine bar, with only 16 chairs. It has a creative menu that could be described as contemporary Spanish, and the dishes are delivered cleverly and at very reasonable prices. The wine list is quite extensive with a focus on what’s happening in Spain at the moment, and with a nod to classic European regions as well, most of all Burgundy, Rhône and Champagne.
We had a wonderful unfiltered fino Arroyuelo from producer Primitivo Collantes, a verdejo from Rueda (Tinita 2014 from Soto y Manrique), 25% of it with fermentation and 4 months lees-ageing in oak. Then we chose the unique Monastel from Rioja’s Juan Carlos Sancha (which we will presented in a later post).
Enjoying a good red at the Gastroteca
We closed our session with a wonderful wine from Gregory Pérez of Bierzo, the Castilian region to the north-west bordering Galicia. Gregory, originally from Bordeaux, fell in love with Bierzo, and at a time he worked with Mariano García (of Vega Sicilia fame) at Luna Beberide, another Bierzo winery. He works very traditionally, with natural methods, including native yeasts, very low sulphur – and with a horse. Mengoba is a series of wines, the name made up of the first letters of the local varieties mencía, godello and valenciana with a “b”).
This Mengoba is made from mencía 80%, and the rest garnacha tintorera, also known as the Portuguese alicante bouschet. The mencía is sourced partly from a clone that Gregory revived in Espanillo, at 700-850 meters with mixed soils (80 year old vines) and the rest from 550 meters at Valtuille (30 year old). It stayed 6 months on lees in big foudres, partly with whole clusters. Then in 5.000 liters in the foudres for almost 10 months.
Mengoba 2015(Gregory Pérez)
Dark red. Aromas of dark fruit, ink, and plums, a little chocolate. Full on the palate, young tannins and good acidity. With a couple of years more it will probably have reached its full potential, with everything integrated and still packed with lively fruit.
