Vitícola Mentridana - El Mentridano 2021

The Sierra de Gredos is an area of rugged granite peaks, forests, and hilltop towns southwest of Madrid. The combination of high altitude, free-draining granitic soils, and a long growing season gives it a unique micro-climate. Vines cling to scree-slopes like mountain goats, many of these sites were abandoned decades ago, but a new generation of growers is rediscovering them. Dani Landi is one of the pioneers working with old-vine Garnacha. With a handful of other pioneering winemakers, he has defined a new style of Garnacha – one that is light in color but intensely flavored, elegant, and mineral-driven. After only a few decades, Dani has gone from obscurity to one of the most lauded winemakers in the world.

Curro Barreño, one-half of the genius behind the Galician project Fedellos, also grew up in the Gredos. He’s a childhood friend of Dani, and over the years, they’ve shared many bottles of wine but, more importantly, a similar outlook on winemaking. So when in 20021, Dani decided to focus all his efforts on Comando G and the vineyards in the Alberche Valley that he shares with Fernando Garcia, he entrusted his friend Curro with his vineyards in the Tietar Valley. All these sites, plus some family vineyards of Curro’s, are located in Méntrida hence the name of this new endeavor, Vitícola Mentridana. Curro is building on Dani’s meticulous foundations, interpreting Dani’s vineyards through what he learned after years of making wines both here and in Galicia. Dani is proud to be able to allow Curro to take stewardship of his vineyards, and Curro is happy to have come home to make wine in the land of his birth.

El Mentridano comes from Curro’s family Garnacha vines planted in the village of Méntrida at an elevation of 600 meters above sea level. Located where the Alberche changes course from flowing southeast to the southwest before it eventually joins the Tagus, this is a landscape of sandy, granitic soils, meadows, and holm oaks. Mentridano, therefore, is a more Mediterranean expression of the Gredos. Still, it remains light on its feet under the care of Curro, who initially gained fame for his ethereal wines at Fedellos. Whole clusters and a short maceration of 8 days, then ages in foudres, this is a pale, floral, and precisely structured Garnacha de Gredos where the ripe fruit is supported by a mineral lift and delicate tannins.

This is one the best wines to come from Gredos in the past few years.

Producer: Vitícola Mentridana

Country: Spain

Region: Castilla-La Mancha

Varietal: Garnacha

Appellation: Méntrida

Vintage: 2021

Size: 750ml