New Wines and Old Favorites from the Sierra de Gredos

Today we are excited to share some treasures from a wine region that may be known to long time Chambers Street Wines customers, but that remains quite unknown to the larger world. The Sierra de Gredos is a viticulturally, geographically, and geologically distinct region west and northwest of Madrid that grows mainly Garnacha (with some Chasselas and Albillo) on largely sandy granitic soils (with some schistous areas) at high altitudes. The resulting wines are highly unique: the Gredos mountains are certainly hot and sunny and the Garnacha is able to fully ripen, but the altitude and the geological character provide the wines with bright acidity and plenty of mineral character. Thus, despite the higher alcohol content these wines are expressive, drinkable, and food friendly. 

Today we are highlighting two producers: Ruben Diaz and Orly Lumbreras, whose work in the area has helped to revitalize the region's winemaking and to push it in exciting new directions.

Ruben Diaz is a native of Cebreros, the town most central to the region's winemaking. His wines are among the most elegant in the region, and are made in a large variety of traditonal styles. Today, we are happy to share two of his Garnacha-based wines that make great companions for barbecue, burgers, and other grilled fare this summer. The Paso de Cebra is an outstanding introduction to Garnacha made in the Gredos style: it shows dense, dark fruit but also an outstanding cooling granitic minerality and bright acidic lift. The Cuesta del Tejar shows the other main terroir of the Sierra de Gredos, with the schist soils of the vineyard site lending a more developed structure. Both wines are representative of the traditional winemaking of the Sierra de Gredos, and Ruben's excellent farming and skilled winemaking. 

Orly Lumbreras' background is in sound engineering and music, and in his move to winemaking he has adopted vineyards in the Gredos as well as in Ribeira Sacra and in Ribeiro. His focus has been on rehabilitating abandoned vineyards in far-flung sites of the Sierra de Gredos. Today, we would like to share his MilaGritos, an expression of Garnacha from a more cooler and wetter site in the Gredos mountains on granitic sandy soils that shows a powerful, dense character and a fascinating texture influenced by time in local amphora. 

Together, Ruben and Orly produce wines under the RuBor label. We have two wines from this collaboration available today. SADE is an orange wine of Albillo from Cebreros, with 40 days of maceration on the skins. It is rare that we are able to offer orange wines with much bottle age, and we are happy to share this special wine from 2015. The highly mineral Groove is a different expression of Garnacha from the high altitude sandy soils of Cebreros. With some time in bottle, it shows a less fruit-forward expression of Garnacha.

We hope you'll join us on Wednesday, July 17, from 5-7pm to taste these wines with Ariana Rolich, whose knowledge of the Gredos and its wines also supplied the information for this article. Thank you, Ariana!

Ben Fletcher