Spain: Deep Dive Into Gredos
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e.g. Burgundy 2000 , Spain: Deep Dive Into Gredos LUIS GUTIÉRREZ 23rd Apr 2020 | The Wine Advocate (/articles/the-wine-advocate) | April 2020 Week 4 (/articles/the- wine-advocate?issue=jQ3ndK7WSXCKrBuxQ) I wanted to get a good picture of what is happening in Gredos, one of the hottest places for Garnacha in Spain, a region that has recently become known for Ûne wine and is still Ûnding its way but has huge potential. This is my Ûfth article talking about the wines from this region, so I have already introduced the zone and growers and explained the particularities of a region of very strong character that, unfortunately, is not a single appellation of origin as it should be. You might be interested in reading my introduction to the region in 2014, Gredos: Mountain Garnacha on Granite (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/QMu84gonsHh3NBbw8/spain-gredos-mountain- garnacha-on-granite), the follow-up articles talking about the issue with the (non) appellation, Gredos: The Appellation That Could Have Been (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/56f2389c7ee1932e7900afd0/) and Gredos: Garnacha Tangled by the Appellations (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/EHsPZZcMS7tGRy4jL/), or Aragón, Gredos and Navarra – The Amazing Garnachas from 2016 (and Some More) (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/LCm3x75gtxX8QJkxC/), where I focused on the wines from 2016 and put Gredos in the context of the other Garnacha regions of Spain. Gredos? What the Hell is Gredos? You might Ûnd references to Gredos, Sierra de Gredos and Garnachas de Gredos, which was an association of the wineries working in the region that is now obsolete. Gredos is the name of a mountain range in central Spain, mostly in the province of Ávila but with part of its foothills in the provinces of Madrid and Toledo. The highest peak in Sierra de Gredos is the Pico Almanzor, at 2,591 meters in altitude. But of course, in these latitudes, the limit for cultivation of the vine is not that high. The vineyards tend to be in the foothills, where they still get the inÙuence of the mountains rather than being in the actual mountains (that’s the Parque Regional de la Sierra de Gredos), which means cooler temperatures and more rain than in the warmer and drier zones further away from the mountains. That makes it a little tricky to put limits to the Sierra de Gredos wine region where vineyards are cultivated. One of the main problems is that the zone belongs to three provinces, each in a di˛erent political region (autonomous community) and, therefore, within three separate appellations of origin! Cebreros is both the name of a village and the appellation of origin in the southeast of the province of Ávila in the region Castilla y León from Spain, with 35 villages in total. Cebreros was the main wine village in the zone and hence the name chosen to name the appellation. All of the wines from Cebreros are from Gredos. As Gredos is very recent, many of the wines from the zone still carry the more-generic Vino de la Tierra Castilla y León appellation or are sold without any appellation at all, as generic wine from Spain. Méntrida is the name of a village and an appellation of origin in the province of Toledo in the Castilla-La Mancha region of Spain. Only a small fraction of the wines from Méntrida belong to the Sierra de Gredos, basically those from the villages of Almendral de la Cañada, El Real de San Vicente, Navamorcuende and Pelahustán. Vinos de Madrid is a hold-all appellation for all the wines produced within the province of Madrid, which comprises very di˛erent and faraway zones—Arganda, El Molar, Navalcarnero and San Martín de Valdeiglesias. These zones have very little in common other than being within the same province, which is a political rather than geographical demarcation. Only part of the wines from the subzone of San Martín de Valdeiglesias within Vinos de Madrid belong to the Sierra de Gredos, those from the villages closer to the mountains. The vineyards are located in the villages of Cadalso de los Vidrios, Cenicientos, Rozas de Puerto Real and San Martín de Valdeiglesias. Sierra de Gredos means Gredos Mountains, so this is a region with mountains and some high- altitude vineyards. There are perhaps between 1,800 and 2,000 hectares of vineyards, but many small plots might not be in the records, so it’s di¸cult to say. Yes, it’s a small region, but to give some perspective, it is similar in size to Priorat or Jura. Like Jura, Priorat and many other regions, the amount land under vine was a lot larger in the past. There are two important rivers in the zone, the Alberche and the Tiétar, and therefore, there are two main valleys. But there are lots of small tributaries and smaller valleys that provide for huge diversity and increased complexity as you multiply altitudes with orientations and locations in three main climate zones of dry Mediterranean, wet Mediterranean and continental/mountain climates. Some circumstances have made Gredos quite unique: The isolation and lack of quality wines has made the size of the region smaller, as many old vineyards have been lost because there was no new blood to take over from the old timers. The price of grapes was ridiculously low, and the orography of the place made it very labor-intensive. So, the vineyards that remained were mostly kept out of love for the place and family traditions—vineyards planted by a grandfather or great- grandfather, a romantic approach to the land rather than a commercial one. And that also meant almost no new vineyards were planted in the last 50 years; there are hardly any French grapes or trellised vines. If I express it the opposite way, we can say Gredos is a reservoir of around 2,000 hectares of 50+- year-old, head-pruned, dry-farmed vines, mostly red Garnacha and a little white Albillo Real on high- altitude, mostly granite soils. Does it sound like a zone with great potential? It does to me! Old, head-pruned, dry-farmed Garnacha at high altitude on granite soils The landscape is stunning and quite varied, with some incredible-looking vineyards, nature at its best: unspoiled, wild, rustic, full of energy and light and as authentic as it gets. It’s easy to get carried away when you are there, because there is a sort of magnetic attraction similar to that of Priorat, Ribeira Sacra or the Douro; the landscape is hypnotic, and in many of vineyards, you feel there is a special energy. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough I think altitude is one of the most, if not the most, important parameter to understand the Gredos vineyards. Altitude varies widely, roughly from 600 to 1,200 meters. Altitude is important for providing freshness in the wines. In the lower-altitude places, you have a milder, more Mediterranean climate with rounder and weightier wines, and as you go up, the wines also get cooler and slimmer and have more minerality and tension. The municipalities might have vineyards at di˛erent altitudes, as this is a mountain zone, it’s not Ùat. But to give you an idea, I’ll list the altitude of some of the better-known villages: Burgohondo – 847 meters Cadalso de los Vidrios – 804 meters Cebreros – 755 meters Cenicientos – 775 meters El Real de San Vicente – 751 meters El Tiemblo – 685 meters Hoyo de Pinares – 850 meters Navarrevisca – 1,129 meters Navatalgordo – 1,262 meters Rozas de Puerto Real – 882 meters San Martín de Valdeiglesias – 681 meters Villanueva de Ávila – 1,059 meters Altitude is probably the most important parameter for vineyards in Gredos I think we could make a classiÛcation of the style of the wines according to the altitude of the vineyards. Below 800 meters – warmer climate and more generous wines Between 800 and 1,000 meters – I’d say this is where the majority of quality wines from Gredos are, and you have a wide range of styles, from rounder to more austere wines Higher than 1,000 meters – cooler climate as well as more austerity and mountain character in the wines It’s not as simple as that, as we’ll see, but there is some correlation. The actual location matters, as sometimes nearby mountains can stop clouds or certain places can have more or less rain and a more humid or drier climate within the same altitude. For example, Las Rozas de Puerto Real has a lot more rain, and the landscape is a lot greener than that of Burgohondo even though they are at similar altitudes. There are also a thousand details and nuances that make every vineyard almost unique, so it’s very di¸cult to make generalizations. Another example is the Iruelas Valley in the municipality of El Tiemblo, which has a very di˛erent microclimate from the rest of municipality, and the character of the wines from there can di˛er widely from the rest. Orientation or exposure might be the next parameter of importance. South-facing is a warmer direction than north-facing. But within these, there might be other things that inÙuence or limit exposure of the vines to the sun, in the case of very narrow places or whatever accidents that might throw shade on the plants. And then we have composition of soils and age, density of planting and pruning of the vines, together with a lot of other details. And that’s without going into the winery, starting with the date of harvest, following with viniÛcation and then élevage.