The Lost Vineyards of Spain

Last week I drove over 3,200km and tasted over 200 wines across regions from Rioja to La Mancha to Valencia, but the trip started and ended in the North East of Spain in the lost vineyards of Navarra and Aragon. There are very few things as exciting as standing among century old vines in wind-swept and isolated mountains, even if the temperatures feel decidedly arctic! With the threat of snow - in fact there was a lot of it around Rioja and Madrid - the backdrop was both eery and beautifully desolate. 

The beginning of this road-trip epic was in a tiny corner of Navarra, not far from Pamplona. The town is called Sada, and the bodega appropriately takes its name from its location: the winery is a small cooperative entirely made up of growers from Sada, mostly all related to each other!

As you can see this area is home to some very very old vines, most of which are Garnacha with an average age of 70 years and some as old as 100, and is also very very high. Cool climate Garnacha. From here you can look out towards the Pyrenees but only if the blustering winds don't knock you over. The vines really have to fight to survive but they certainly do flourish. There is nothing else for miles: pure air and rich terroir for the Garnacha grape. Have a look at the isolation:

The bodega itself was founded in 1939 but it's almost unknown outside this corner of Spain: for most of its history it sold wine in bulk, either to other wineries or to local restaurants and bars. This may have been the source of the wine that Hemingway used to drink in vast quantities when he frequented the bars of his favourite city Pamplona. And if it's good enough for Hemingway, it's good enough for me! As the great man wrote, wine "...offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing." Sada's Garnacha offers just such a thing!

In the past few years Sada has engaged the services of two talented wine professionals with strong credentials: a winemaker who used to work with Spanish superstar Telmo Rodriguez at the top Rioja bodega Remelluri, and a manager who worked with some of the top wineries in Ribera del Duero. This duo are now keen for the rest of the world to discover their well-kept secret.

We tasted some lovely 2012 Garnacha but also tasted some very young wine still bubbling away in tank as it is still fermenting. Try to work out what this Garnacha is saying!

So from this exciting start to the trip, we can jump ahead to an equally exciting finish! Still in the North East but this time we move closer to Zaragoza, Aragon, and an almost extinct grape variety...Vidadillo. The bodega is Vinae Mureri in the tiny town of Murero which sits along side the River Jiloca.  Below you can see the area (marked by the square).







This is a very old winemaking region of Spain. In Roman times the area - Bilbilis, close to the modern day town of Calatayud - was famous for its wines, mostly Garnacha but a few other varietals were planted there as well. And now in the surrounding mountains there are still vines which are over 100 years old, pre-Phylloxera stock. Add into the mix an altitude of 850 - 1,100m, it becomes clear why this is a very special place.

In the 1920s Vidadillo was as dominant in this area as Garnacha is today. But it was a very productive grape - four times as much produced off the vine as Garnacha - so it was considered inferior. The grape itself is also a lot bigger than others, twice as big as Garnacha and  it was a difficult grape to control in the winemaking process, and so a lot of the planted area was ripped up. But this is an amazing grape variety that just needs some extra love and attention...

In Jancis Robinson's book on grapes ("Wine Grapes") Vidadillo is described as a nearly extinct variety that is unrelated to any other grape and only found in the North East of Spain. I found it had an almost Italian or Burgundian quality: high acid, floral aromas of violet and wild herbs with a huge lick of blackcurrant on the palate. It is elegant and concentrated, with its old vine heritage shining through (see the withered 100 year old vines below).

It's not easy to get to these vineyards as only parcels remain now dotted among the rough and rugged mountains in this valley. We got a flat tire (fortunately not my car!). Apparently this is the winemaker's fifth this harvest!

Jose Antonio owns this bodega and is not put off by the odd flat tire! He has a glint in his eye and loves to tell the stories of his parents and grand parents working the same vineyards that he is now looking after. His passion for the area - and for Vidadillo - is clear. Over lunch I think he managed to explain the history of the region going back almost as far as pre-historic times!

Jose Antonio on the left, sitting

And finally, once we get some of this lovely Vidadillo into stock, if you need any inspiration for a food match, look no further than in-season mushrooms. The stuff dreams are made of...!