2020 Comando G "Tumba Del Rey Moro", Castilla y León, Spain

ABOUT THIS WINE

Tumba del Rey Moro is an absurd vineyard resembling an ancient landslide with several small natural terraces irregularly planted with vines. Until a few years ago, the site was nearly inaccessible and overgrown with scrub brush. When Dani and Fer heard rumor of this plot, they spent several months trying to locate it and clear a path so they could farm it. Here you can find similar granitic sands as in their other sites but with pinker-hued granite and more quartz. Like its siblings, it is pale in color but tasting it makes you wonder if this is what Marcel Lapierre could have done at Château Rayas had he the chance.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Daniel Landi and Fernando Garcia, friends since college, found themselves working in the area centered around the Sierra de Gredos: Daniel at his family’s estate, Bodegas Jimenez-Landi, and Fernando at Bodega Marañones. Drawn to the mountains and rumors of small, nearly inaccessible vineyard plots located high in the Sierra de Gredos, over time, they began purchasing and leasing the best sites they could find, creating their own project, Comando G in 2008. Along with the pioneers of the Priorat, Daniel and Fernando are redefining what was previously viewed as a workhorse variety, Garnacha, into something that can rival the elegance and finesse of Pinot in Burgundy or Syrah in the northern Rhône.

The vineyards that Daniel and Fernando have assembled are all farmed biodynamically. These vines range from 50 to 80 years old and are planted on sandy soils weathered from granite, slate, and quartz. A combination of high altitude, freely draining soils, and a mild and fairly humid micro-climate – for central Spain – guarantees a long growing season and a modest alcohol level in the finished wines. The resultant wines are startlingly pale, extraordinarily aromatic, and intensely flavorful. Each site is harvested by hand, usually in October, fermented by indigenous yeasts in open-top French oak casks, then aged in a combination of 500-700L French oak barrels, foudre, and clay amphorae.