Daniel Gomez Jimenez Landi - 'Las Iruelas' 2019

Dani Landi got his start as the winemaker at Bodegas Jimenez-Landi, a company he formed with his cousin, but he left in 2012 to create his own eponymous label. In doing so, he kept part of his family’s inheritance and a few sites that he had purchased or leased himself. Dani Landi farms vineyards both in Méntrida, located south of the Sierra de Gredos, and vineyards in the province of Ávila to the north. In Méntrida, in the village of El Real de San Vicente, Dani farms scattered plots of Albillo and Garnacha destined for his village wines – Las Uvas de la Ira Albillo and Las Uvas de la Ira Garnacha. In this same village, he also farms a sparsely planted vineyard of 60+-year-old vines of Garnacha that he inherited from his family, which is the source for Cantos del Diablo. In Ávila, Dani farms two sites: Las Iruelas in the village of El Tiemblo and El Reventón in Cebreros. Las Iruelas is a muscular Garnacha from a plot of 60+-year-old vines planted on a complex and patchy terroir of mixed clay and sandy granite, schist, and quartz. El Reventón’s schist soils are unique for a region where sandy granite soils predominate. Located in the village of Cebreros, this vineyard of Garnacha is well over 70 years of age and offers a darker and starkly wild aromatic take on Garnacha de Gredos.

All of Dani’s sites combine high altitudes, freely draining soils, and a mild and fairly humid micro-climate (ask us about shivering in the vineyards in July!) – factors that guarantee a long growing season and modest alcohol levels. The resulting wines are startlingly pale, extraordinarily aromatic, and intensely flavorful. Each site is harvested by hand, usually, in October, fermented whole cluster by indigenous yeasts in open-top French oak casks then aged in a combination of foudre, 300–700 liter French oak barrels, and clay amphorae. When not making remarkably distinct and captivating wines under his own label, he shares the duties and responsibilities of Comando G, also in the Sierra de Gredos, with Fernando Garcia.

Las Iruelas is a muscular Garnacha from a plot of 60+ year old, head-pruned vines planted at an elevation of over 1000 meters above sea level. A mixed and sandy terroir of granite, slate, schist and quartz with patches of clay, this is the most complex soil that Dani Landi works in the Sierra de Gredos. With beguiling floral aromas that are more reminiscent of the Northern Rhône than the other bottlings from Dani, Comando G or Marañones, Las Iruelas shares the same delicate fruit and delineated mineral structure characteristic of the Gredos, but pitched deeper and more somber.

"The village red from El Real De San Vicente 2019 Las Uvas de la Ira was already bottled by the time I tasted it in November 2020. This comes from the same five vineyards that range from 40 to 65 years of age and are planted at around 750 meters in altitude on sandy granite soils with lots of silt. The whole clusters fermented separately with indigenous yeasts—one-third with a soft and long maceration (for backbone and length), one-third with a short maceration (for fragrance) and one-third with only half of the skins (or double the juice) for juiciness—and the wines the matured for 10 months in oak vats varying in size from 1,500 to 4,000 liters. There is a high-pitched herbal note here that I'd associate with cooler years; the wine is stony and austere, with a notable absence of heat. This is remarkably fresh and balanced. A triumph over the conditions of the year." - 97 points, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Producer: Daniel Gomez Jimenez Landi

Country: Spain

Region: Castilla y León

Varietal: Garnacha

Appellation: Tierra de Castilla y León

Vintage: 2019

Size: 750ml