Comando G - Rumbo al Norte 2021

A short distance away from Madrid, the rugged, weathered peaks of the Sierra de Gredos serve as a refreshingly cool retreat from the heat and bustle of the capital. Ancient hilltop towns and cottages dot the tortured landscape of alpine meadows, tumbled boulders, and thick scrub brush. Clustered around this rugged range are several DOs, most notably Mentrida and Viños de Madrid, best known for producing reliably inexpensive and simple country wines to slake the capital’s thirst.

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.

The most generous and arguably most profound of the single parcel wines, Rumbo al Norte comes from a 0.3-hectare plot of mixed Garnacha vines planted around gigantic boulders on sandy and silty mountain soils. This vineyard ripens late, well into October due to its elevation and a north-facing aspect. The fruit tends towards darker flavors with an altogether sweeter impression of the fruit wrapped around a spicy backbone.

"The most complete of all the wines I tasted was the 2021 Rumbo al Norte, from grapes picked the 17th of October, the same exact date as when they picked the 2018, very late. It's from their latest harvest ever, as they didn't start picking until the end of September! The nose encapsulates the character of Villanueva de Ávila with elegance, complexity and floral notes. It's bright and light, with energy and power but in the shape of a ballet dancer, gracious and energetic and with no fat at all. It has a very sharp palate, with a strong mineral sensation, with depth and pungent flavors that give it a lot of length. It's another stunning Rumbo al Norte, one of the most beautiful vineyards I know, a place with a special energy where you feel it has to make great wine. 1,333 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2023." - 100 points, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"Very quiet nose with great purity and precision. Never loud, rather reticent, with a flinty, reductive smokiness to the pure mineral attraction. Some white pepper and white roses as well. Feathery lightness in form but intense with minerality. Long, endless finish that tiptoes on the tongue and won’t end. Extremely drinkable now as the rest of the Comando G wines, but it deserves four to five more years in the bottle." - 99 points, James Suckling

Producer: Comando G

Country: Spain

Region: Castilla y León

Varietal: Garnacha

Appellation: Tierra de Castilla y León

Vintage: 2021

Size: 750ml