Three months ago I had contact with José Andrés Prieto that ended with an agreement to visit in Inazares, Murcia, when I was going on holiday. Then suddenly and unexpectedly he died, on the 30th of November. (Here is an article in Spanish from local paper La Verdad.) I didn’t contact the family then, but I will. All I did was to buy his wine again in the excellent delicatessen shop Sabor y Tradición, just down the road from our flat in Murcia city.
This project was started by two brothers-in-law and their wives in 2005. At the time they didn’t have any knowledge about farming or winegrowing, but got advice from Vinitech Bordeaux. After seven years oenologist María José Fernández Llamas joined the project. They follow a philosophy of minimal intervention and sustainability.
A few years ago I reported from Pedro Olivares’ vineyards nearby, in Inazares, a hamlet of Moratalla municipality. This project is now abandoned. This means that it’s little doubt that the highest (at least commercial) vineyards in Europe is now Alto de Inazares’ vineyard at 1.373 meters.
The grapes are viognier, chardonnay, gewürztraminer, sauvignon blanc and riesling, planted in 2011 and cultivated organically on trellises, with a simple cordon royat. The grapes are hand-harvested and destemmed. After a light pressing skin maceration is carried out for 6 hours. The clarification is done by a natural settling of the sediments. The wine is aged on lees in steel for 6 months.
Blanco de Blancas 2021 (Alto de Inazares)
Straw yellow. Plenty of aromatics, with citrus (lemon), floral and herbal notes, and a slight tropical hint (melon). Fresh in the mouth, concentrated, mineral, with a vivid acidity and a long aftertaste. Full of energy.
This wine was enjoyed with a savoury fish dish at the restaurant Pura Cepa in Murcia city.
It’s made by the Pacheco family winery, or: Bodegas Viña Elena, in Jumilla. Elena Pacheco is third generation, the winery being founded by her grandfather Francisco in 1948, who then started making wine with modest equipment. 4th generation is today working in the winery, and in oenology Elena has great help from Pilar Abellán, who has been with the winery for more than 20 years. The cultivation is always organic.
The vineyard for this wine is located in the Estrecho de Marín valley, south of the town of Jumilla. They are young, planted in 2018 in bush and dry land. The varieties are white Mediterranean, including garnacha blanca.
The wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks at a temperature of 16 ºC and aged in 500L French oak barrels for 7 months. Plate and amicrobial filtration.
Familia Pacheco Edición Especial 2022(Viña Elena)
Light golden colour. Aroma of melon and baked citrus, with a layer of nuts and butter, and with notes of vanilla. Rich and structured in the mouth, tasty, well-integrated wood, with decent acidity and long and persistent finish.
It’s always a pleasure to come back to La Gracia natural wine bar in the centre of Murcia. They have a small but carefully crafted selection of wines. And I know I can trust sommelier Esperanza Pérez and let her just chose something.
This Christmas and New Year I visited twice. Though the temperature was quite low we chose to sit outside, so the descriptions might suffer a bit. I had two wines that I have described before. You can read about the local Negrete 2021 (Negre- T Blue) here and Navaciegos (Cható Gañán), Gredos here. Sorry, I didn’t get the vintage of the latter, but it was probably 2019.
Here follow two wines that both were perfect for a cold winter’s afternoon, with 15 and 14,5% alcohol respectively.
Ninja de las Uvas 2022 is made by Julia Casado, or La del Terreno, as she calls her project. It’s located in the Sierra de Lavia regional park in Murcia, and the wine comes under the designation DO Bullas. We are in monastrell country, but this wine is in fact made of garnacha tinta. It’s made with grapes from 20 year old vines planted in clay and calcareous gravel soil at 750 metres above sea level and tended organically. The grapes are 90% destemmed and macerated for 15 days, with malolactic fermentation in used barrels. Bottled without being filtered, clarified or adding sulphur. It’s a unique wine with some warmth, but with a lovely fruit quality (morello, plums), complemented by aromatic herbs and coffee. It fills the mouth with its roundness and is perfect in the cold Murcian winter.
Ars Nova 2016 is from Navarra, made by Bodega Tandem, that is José Maria Fraile and Alicia Eyaralar. They are committed to little intervention. The grapes are cultivated in the Yerri valley, in western Navarra, that is, as sommelier Esperanza points out, close to Rioja Alavesa.
It’s made of Navarra’s trilogy of grapes, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and tempranillo. Fermentation took place at controlled temperatures of 28°C, with a careful extraction. Pumps were not used, instead, the wine was racked by gravity into concrete vats. The wine was not cold stabilised or fined. It spent 24 months in concrete vats, followed by nine months in French oak. Super black fruit, with olive and spice. It’s full in the mouth, with nice concentration. Perfect for this kind of setting.
Here is a Bullas wine once introduced te me by La Gracia, a fabulous natural wine bar in the centre of Murcia. It does not bear the official seal though. I’ll investigate on that one day.
María José Fernández Llamas and Patri Morillo are its makers. It comes from monastrell and garnacha tintorera, with ages ranging between 8 and 50 years. The clusters are trodden with intact stems. Alcoholic fermentation is controlled below 25º. The soils consist of clay and calcareous clay textures, deep and rich.
Negrete 2021(Negre-T Blue Wines)
Deep purple. Attractive and seductive aromas of mature fruits, herbs. Full and juicy in the mouth, with gentle tannins and a pleasant acidity. Easy fruit-driven drinking.
Back in Murcia for Christmas celebrations, I never miss an opportunity to visit La Gracia natural wine bar near the cathedral (and the bull ring). Sommelier Esperanza tells that they will organize a natural wine fair on the 21st of January, called #vinosinresaca (that means wine without hangover), where some 25 of the most prestigious microbodegas from all over the country will participate. I really appreciate and support the initiative, though I can’t participate this first time. You should if you are near.
This evening I chose a plain Italian focaccia to go with all three wines, that were excellent. I opened with an aperitif, the sparkler Malaherba 2019 from Finca Parera, Penedès. It’s a rich and tasty wine with lots of body based on the xarel.lo vermell (red) grape, with yellow fruits aroma with wax and iodine.
The invitation to the upcoming fair and the Duarte bobal
Next was Duarte2022, a young bobal-tempranillo with fresh and dark berries and herbs, quite simple, but tasty. Good fruit throughout, and the tannins were quite firm and seemed young. Its maker Verónica Romero from Utiel-Requena, València is a comet in today’s natural wine sky. The wine is made with whole bunches in a variant of the carbonic maceration.
One of the more established natural wine producers in the Gredos mountains is Cható Gañán, where Kike Prados holds the reins. Navaciegos is a quite complex garnacha wine, purple coloured, aromas of red and dark fruits, also some dried herbs, and a layer of coffee. In the mouth it is full, quite dense and concentrated, with rounded tannins and good fruit. It’s made in Navahondilla, in a 0.35 hectares vineyard of 60 year old vines, at about 785 meters of altitude, with very degraded granite soil. A small part of the grapes are foottrodden and vatted with stems. The rest is destemmed. It was aged in French barrels of 500 liters at various ages.
This Christmas I visited Bodegas Castaño in Yecla, Murcia, for the first time in more than 20 years. They are in conversion to organic farming. And if I remember right, all wines will soon have the seal, except for some wines where part of the grapes are purchased. One of their slogans is “the art of monastrell”, and through their various lines they showed what can be done with this emblematic grape of the Levante coast.
Daniel Castaño shows an ancient Roman track. Herbs contribute to the wines’ aroma
This week’s pick is one of my favourite monastrell wines. Hécula is an ancient Roman name for the town. The wine is a pure monastrell, and was also featured last year (read here). It can be considered their entry-level monastrell, but it’s not simple. It comes from a 750 meter altitude vineyard on limestone, with an average of 50 year old vines. It’s certified organic, made with spontaneous fermentation and got a few months of oak treatment (mostly French), with malolactic in steel. It’s very Mediterranean and very good.
Four historic labels, the actual to the left
Hécula Organic 2020 (Bod. Castaño)
Dark cherry red. On the nose it shows ripe berries (morello), plum, aromatic herbs (thyme, rosemary) and a hint of coffee. Full in the mouth with mature tannins, an earthy note and a fine acidity.
Price: Low
Food: All kinds of meat, stews, salads with meat (such as Caesar), murcian paella…
La Gracia is a small and cozy natural wine bar that opened in 2020, when the pandemic was at its height. It’s found in Murcia capital, Spain, in one of the narrow streets behind the city hall and the cathedral in the Santa Eulalia district. They work with artisan producers of wine, cheese and also beer and other products. The owners are Esperanza Pérez Andreo and Cristina Ramos Berna. They have strong ties with local and regional producers from whom they buy directly.
I was there twice at the end of the year, including New Year’s Eve. We sat on the “terrace” (i.e. the plaza behind the first street) near midnight, and then inside the bar around noon. We chose from the cold and the warm tapas menues, and from the by-the-glass wine selection, that counts on around 30 references.
Esperanza Pérez, responsible for the wine selection
Among the small dishes we chose was a “cured” cheese selection. The first one was a young and fresh, but oh so tasty, cheese from Cartagena, then a 3-4 months cured goat’s cheese soaked in red wine, then a 9 months cured cheese from San Javier called ‘El Abuelo’ (the grandfather) and finally a wonderfully complex cheese from a mountain between Cartagena and Mazarrón. The watermelon marmelade was from coastal San Javier.
The wine list contains established and new natural wine stars from Murcia and elsewhere in Spain. We started with Las Madres 2020(Punta de Flecha), a light skin-contact white from the Madrid area. The grape is malvar, and like many other wines from that variety it is low on acidity but rather textured. Amber coloured and slightly fizzy, it had a nice aroma of flowers and orange peel.
Las Madres with chicken brioche
Viña Enebro is rather well-known in Spanish natural wine circles, and you can read about a visit in Bullas here. El Yesar 2020 is a white wine made from the red grape forcallat. Hence it has a little blush of red. It’s round and tasty, and the aroma includes traces of citrus (clementine) and herbs.
At the second day I asked for whatever white wine and was served Doble Plaer 2020 from Vinyes Singulars (with collaboration from Toni Osorio) It turned to be a wonderful wine with a phenomenal acidity, almost electric. It has a good body too. Light orange in colour, and somewhat cloudy, with an aroma of citrus peel (lemon) and flowers over black tea. Long aftertaste where the citric notes linger. The grapes are malvasía de Sitges and parellada.
The two first reds were revelations from the Murcia region. Negrete 2021 from Negrete Blue is a monastrell/garnacha tintorera from no less than 1.373 meters of altitude in the Bullas denomination. It was a fresh and juicy, berry-dominated, young wine, with blackberry and blueberry in front.
Tinaha 2020 comes from the bodega of the same name. It’s found between Molino de Segura and Jumilla to the north of the regional capital. As the name implies they believe in ageing in clay (tinajas). The varieties are a local field blend, and so monastrell should be among the suspects. The wine had red berry notes, but was more dominated by a clay minerality with flowers, and had a juicy taste with a long aftertaste, and especially for the region, good acidity.
We tasted two reds from Castilla. Felipe el Caminero 2021(Inma Badillo) is a fresh tempranillo/ juan garcía/bruñal blend from Arribes del Duero, close to the Portuguese border (provinces Zamora and Salamanca). It’s a pure, very juicy and fruity wine with lots of berry character. La Payana 2020 (Cható Gañán) is completely different. Made from garnacha on granite soil in the Sierra de Gredos, it has a more serious air to it. It has some of the etheral character often associated with the Gredos garnachas, and some of the minerality behind the red fruits. The oak shows delicately on the palate.
Since I was back on New Year’s Eve I took the opportunity to round off with a sparkling wine. The choice fell on En Moviment A 2020 (Bàrbara Forés) from Terra Alta, Catalunya, made from the local morenillo grape. The sparkling rosé smells of peach and grapefruit. There is an acidic attack in the mouth, the wine is slim in the middle, but the citrus acidity strikes back and gives it a lift towards the end.
Bendito Vinos y Vinilos (wine and vinyl) is an all natural wine bar in Madrid’s Lavapiés barrio. This hilly neighborhood was earlier a cheap place that attracted many immigrants. (Here is a link to another restaurant, to be published.) Bendito is located inside the multicultural San Fernando market, that looks like a gathering place for the cultures they represent. Lavapiés is now the most international neighborhood in Madrid. Once the Jewish quarter, much later the immigrants actually established many bars here. After Spain’s entry into the EU, there was a new wave of migration. Therefore Bendito is a good place to get to learn about the changes in Spanish culture and gastronomy.
Owner José González selects cheeses and hams from many places. These are served with economic down-to-earth wines chosen by Ilan Saltzman, wine responsible, while the vinyl records spins in the background. By the way, Bar Bendito means the blessed bar, with all the allegories that it is possible to derive from that name.
I was there last Friday and the following Sunday and enjoyed a handful of wines both days, all served with small bites of cheese or charcuterie. This report is mainly based on the first visit.
One of the wines that night was Pampaneo Airén 2020 from Esencia Rural, a very fresh, lemony sparkler from Toledo. Read more about it here.
A delightful habit of the wine bars is when the waiter gives you a couple of sips, before you decide which wine you want in your glass. Here my waiter Ilan poured three samples. One of them Soif du Mal Blanc 2020, a muscat-dominated wine from Les Foulards Rouges, over the French border. I chose to wait until some other time, and go for a Castilian wine. Palote 2020 from Microbodega Rodríguez Morán in the province of Salamanca was made from palomino grapes. It rested one week with skins and stems. Thereafter it was aged in clay, finally bottled unfined, unfiltered and without sulphur. The colour was light orange/amber, slightly turbid; nice aroma of yellow fruit, elderberry, flowers and a touch of figs; good acidity, it plays with bitterness, but it’s restrained. A blue cheese accompaned these first wines, and it went surprisingly well.
Behind Artesano Vintners is Mike Shepherd, who has a past in Australia in two important natural wine houses. Now in Catunya he grows only 2 hectares. Parellatxa 2020 is a clarete: Pale red; vibrant fruit, raspberry; very light delicate touch of tannin. The name is put together by the varieties parellada and garnatxa, but this you have already figured out.
Ilan Saltzman (originally from Canada), wine responsible, serving the Kikiriki
Kikiriki 2018 is made from ull de llebre (tempranillo) and carinyena in a vineyard from 1979, by Manel Aviñó of Clos Lentiscus, Penedès. He works employing biodynamic techniques and ferment the grapes by variety before assembling the wines. Dark cherry colour; blueberry, also lighter fruit (raspberry) and a touch licorice; juicy with light tannin, good acidity, and over all truly fascinating.
Nacho González makes his wines within Valdeorras. But he is not a member of the DO, thus his La Perdida wines carry the designation Vinos de España. A Mallada 2020 is made from sumoll and garnacha tintorera. Fermented in amphora, aged in old oak, bottled without sulphites. It’s dark, quite complex; on the nose it displays something sweet and sour (sweet cherries, acidic berry stones?) and very fresh fruit; there is a young dryness in the mouth, lovely acidity.
About the second visit I will report very briefly. It went more or less like the first visit. The two absolutely brilliant wines were Jordi Llorens‘ Ancestral de la Cristina and Oriol Artigas‘ El Rall, both from Catalunya, both from 2019. The former is from the Conca de Barberà area in the province of Tarragona and lived up to normal standard, light yellow with its clean appley and mature lemony easy-going character. The latter I didn’t know. It’s a sumoll (the grape) from DO Alella, north of Barcelona city, and showed a cherry-dominated red fruits side, with a pleasant juicyness in the mouth. The best of the rest, and a surprise too, was Sin Prisa 2018, a forest fruits-coffee-scented monastrell without added sulphites from Bodegas De Fábula, Murcia, near the regional capital.
Below: Only two of the many international cuisine restaurants in the San Fernando market.
I am in Murcia, Spain for Christmas. What could be more appropriate than presenting a regional speciality, sweet monastrell wine. BodegasOlivares has long since been my favourite among the producers of this type. Nowadays there are more serious contenders, but Olivares still stands tall.
Hoya de Santa Ana is a sub-zone of Jumilla, situated in the north-western corner. It has the highest elevation in the DO. Thus the warm days are complemented with temperatures considerably cooler than the rest of the wine area.
Credit: Bod. Olivares
For this wine they use the oldest vines of the estate, ungrafted (‘pie franco’ in Spanish). They let the grapes hang on the vine until late autumn. Once the grapes begin to turn into raisins, they reach a great richness, but given the cool nights a certain freshness is still achieved. Around 5-6 years per decade they consider the conditions to be good enough to release this dessert wine.
Partial fermentation is employed, and more than 30 days of maceration with skins. Wood ageing? Zero.
The resulting alcohol is16%. It’s not overtly sweet, at a sugar content 200 gr/l. For those interested in volatile acidity it’s 0,20 gr/l.
Olivares Monastrell Dulce 2016(Bod. Olivares)
Dark red, brownish hint. Complex aroma of blackberry, plums, and dried fruits (dates, figs), a bit raisiny. Concentrated taste with good acidity, some structure and great persistence. Sweet, but not overdone, and relatively speaking, also fresh.
Price: Medium
Food: Many desserts, especially when made with chocolate, with blue and aged cheeses. We had it with the local turrón, a sweet contain almonds and honey.
Casa Castillo has for long been considered one of the leading producers of Jumilla wines, today with José María Vicente in charge.
The winery is located to the west of Jumilla town, on the slopes of Sierra del Molar. Here, up to 760 metres, they own a big estate with diverse plantings including pine and almond trees, while 170 hectares are covered with vines. Under José María many of the international varieties have been replaced with monastrell and other Mediterranean grapes, and also garnacha, that is thriving well here.
Much of the soils are limestone, often with sand. Most of the wines are made fermented in steel or concrete, often with some amount of whole bunches, to counterbalance the ripeness in the grapes. Ageing is in concrete, foudre or old 500 liter French oak vats.
This wine is a blend of monastrell, syrah and garnacha.
with pulpo (squid) at the Rincón de Joaquín restaurant, San Cayetano (Murcia)
Viñedos de Altiplano 2018 (Casa Castillo)
Dark cherry. Aroma of black pepper, blackberry, herbs (thyme, anise), and a hint of chocolate. Medium body, mature fruits balanced with a nice acidity and a slight bitterness at the end. Very Mediterranean, very good.
Price: Medium
Food: Hearty dishes, stews, most kinds of meat, Murcian paella…
