A Spanish wine revolution in Sierra de Gredos
30 November 2020
“Oak plus age equals quality is (or was) the gold standard of Spanish wine - but it's being steadily replaced by a focus on terroir, and one producer in the stony hills west of Madrid is leading the way” – Natasha Hughes MW, Club Oenologique
To read the full Club Oenologique article please click here Read More
The Sierra de Gredos is quickly becoming one of Europe’s hottest tickets. True mountain-Garnacha delivered with a core of crisp minerality and dazzling, crystalline fruit, producers like 4 Monos are re-defining what can be achieved with what was once considered Spain’s workhorse grape. Javier Garcia, winemaker at 4 Monos, believes 2018 is the best vintage they have seen in the region, describing it simply as a “super, unbelievable, year.” He goes on to say that “it is really unusual to experience a year where all the varieties excel, not just Garnacha but Carinena and our local white, Albillo Real, too. The wines are silky and ripe but with structure and presence, and crucially, a core of real freshness and acidity that will allow them to age very well. These years do not come around very often!”
After a challenging 2017 which saw hard frosts and then drought in much of Spain, 2018 came along and delivered both quality and quantity, a consequence of fresher vintage conditions and a late harvest which allowed for increased hang time and enhanced aromatic complexity. Our first tastings from barrel back in 2019 displayed an enormous amount of promise, but tasting them from bottle this week we were blown away by the precision, depth and ageability that the 2018s display. That they continue to be offered at such reasonable prices again posits Gredos as one of the most compelling “new” Old World regions. Still in a growth phase, the 4 Monos vineyard holding now sits at ten hectares, predominantly made up of sparsely planted mature bush vines, five of which they own and five they lease. They source grapes from a further ten hectares, the majority of which is used for the delicious, everyday GR10 – a regional Garnacha blend.
Cien Lanzas, from the village of Cenicientos, comes from a blend of south facing vineyards averaging 900m on grey and pink granite and is the most floral, high toned wine in the range. Aguja del Fraile, from east and north facing vineyards in Cadalso de los Vidrios, planted on rockier, greyer granite soils, has a darker yet cooler and more mineral profile, while Tierra de Luna is from the village of San Martin de Valdigleisias, which has a warmer more Mediterranean meso-climate, producing fuller, more garrigue-infused Garnacha wines. Production of each of the village wines averages just 2-3k bottles. From San Martin also comes the one-hectare single vineyard Molino Quemado – an immensely complex, salty, intense wine, and one that in 2018 is deft and agile too. The white Albillo Real is a textured, salty and savoury wine – perfect for a whole host of interesting food pairings.
For more information on this up-and-coming, really exciting small producer, we highly recommend this article written by the luxury wine magazine Club Oenologique just this month.
“We are part of a new wave of Spanish winemakers,” says Garcia with pride. “It’s nice to think that we can be part of the revolution, moving away from those over-ripe wines aged in oak that were once thought to be the only way of making quality wines in Spain.” – Excerpt from Club Oenologique: “Monkey business: Spanish wine revolution in Sierra de Gredos”.
Stocks are abroad and will be shipped by the end of 2020.