‘Thinking outside the matchbox’ is a pretty fair tagline for a new cast of innovative winemakers working out of Valencia, Spain, rediscovering indigenous grapes and releasing small batches of unique wine. No one exemplifies this garagista gang better than Javi Revert, whose family has farmed the region for generations and who may prefer the description, ‘an iconoclastic traditionalist.’
This week, we are proud to feature a selection of Revert’s quiet revolution—transparent gems reflective of the soul of his particular terroir and his spirit as a modern winemaker. Some of the varieties Javi uses ring strangely to the ear; they are as new to us as they are to you. But these grapes have—like Javi Revert—grown up in the Valencian landscape alongside the herbs, the olives and the almond trees.
This is a unique opportunity for wine lovers to travel an unusual route along the Iberian Peninsula’s far east coast to experience some personal wine evolution while sampling Revert’s wine revolution.
Endangered animal species get a lot of press, especially if they are cute and cuddly or have magnificent wing spans. Gnarled old Tortosí vines struggling in the scrublands of rural Spain don’t always feel the same love. But for those of us interested in exploring and preserving the heritage of grapes which have fallen out of commercial favor, the case for search and rescue is easy to make, especially in the Mediterranean.
According to an international group of pros called ‘Wine Mosaic,’ it is estimated that 155 Mediterranean varieties are planted on less than 24 acres, putting them perilously close to extinction. Another 200 regional varieties have grown increasingly rare, with fewer than 250 acres planted. Says Alain Carbonneau, Wine Mosaic’s vice president, “Preserving rare grapes is not just a matter of variety on wine-store aisles. Recent DNA research has shown that unusual and unknown grape varieties provide clues to wine history.”
Researcher Antero Martin—recently awarded the Order of Merit for Agriculture for his work studying and preserving grape varieties—adds, “It’s important to keep them around, indispensable in fact. They offer researchers a genetic toolbox for overcoming challenges of climate change, vine disease and changing consumer tastes.”
Each endangered grape has its own backstory, of course. The devastation of phylloxera wiped out many varieties at the end of the 19th century, and even more disappeared in the last decades of the 20th century when indigenous grapes were replaced by more marketable international varieties.
The good news? Many of these nearly forgotten grapes still grow in lost vineyards either repurposed or abandoned. In fact, it is this very scenario that inspired our featured winemaker, Javi Revert.
The regional term ‘Levant,’ which many of us associate with the Middle East, is also used to describe Valencia, where in Spanish it refers to ‘the getting up place,’ as its location on the Iberian Peninsula places is closest to the rising sun.
For years, Valencia was a forgotten (but productive) child in the Spanish wine scene, known for an output of bulk juice that wine connoisseurs may consider ‘wine’ only by dictionary default. The Mediterranean Sea and its associated climate is conducive to ripening both grapes and the region’s famous oranges and so copious are the fish and shellfish pulled from its waters that it should come as no surprise that Valencia is the birthplace of paella.
‘Big blends’ wines are rarely picky about variety, and this phenomenon is in part responsible for the survival of many indigenous old-vine grapes which may be unrecognizable in name and stand-alone taste, but which may find their way into the blends of bulk winemakers, but also form a foundation for a new generation of winemakers eager to raise the bar on expectations.
Rubén Sanz Ramiro, a Spanish sommelier, sums it up this way: “The progressive work and commitment of this new generation of growers have demonstrated that there is great potential in Valencia and very compelling wines can be produced there. Particularly those wines made with their indigenous varieties (Bobal, Verdil, Moscatel) have something distinctive to say and can be utterly delicious, displaying both personality and a sense of a place.”
“One of the Most Exciting Young Growers in The Mediterranean Zone of Spain.” Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate January 2024
As the story goes, Javi was walking with his grandfather in the fields between Valencia and Murcia when they came upon an old vineyard planted by his great-grandfather. The plots hadn’t been worked for years and had merged into a patchwork of wild flora. This set the wheels in motion; Javi realized that these abandoned vines with north-facing exposures had the potential to transform the world’s understanding of quality wines from the region.
After studying viticulture, Javi worked at Celler del Roure before returning to his home town of La Font de la Figuera where has family has farmed for generations. Initially working the plots his great grandfather had planted, he began to meticulously refurbish other nearby mountain terraces where he found small plots of Tortosí, Trepadell, Malvasía, Merseguera, Verdil, Monastrell and Arcos. In doing so, he learned each macro- and micro-climate. With this insight, he began planting new plots, working hard to make wines of increasing purity and precision.
In addition to his own wines, Javier also works in collaborative projects with Finca Sandoval and La Comarcal. He says, “By understanding the land, making soil-based decisions and practicing traditional viticulture, I try to produce wines capable of changing preconceived notions of what Mediterranean Spain can do. From the beginning, the focus has been on the vineyard, giving total importance to the location and betting on a location on the north face of the highest mountain in the area. There, we have recovered old vines planted by our ancestors, but we have also replanted in old abandoned plots with steep slopes, immersed in the heart of the mountain.”
Javi cultivates thirty acres, roughly divided in half; old mountain vineyards make up one portion and young vineyards replanted in traditional, but long-abandoned locations make up the rest.
“We work organically, following biodynamic and sustainable practices. We promote biodiversity in our vineyards, encouraging the presence of beneficial plants and animals to maintain the balance of the ecosystem. I firmly believe that it is the combination of places and people that is responsible for the legacy of winemaking everywhere.”
1 Javi Revert Viticultor ‘Micalet – Parcel·la Pla del Micalet’, 2022 Valencia White ($62)
A field blend of Tortosí, Trepadell, Malvasía, Merseguera and Palomino from Pla del Micalet—a six-acre vineyard in the foothills of the Penya Foradà mountains with a northwest orientation and at an altitude well over 2000 feet. The vines were planted in 1948. Each year, two harvests are made; the first is of the un-grafted old vines that mature earlier due to their lower vigor and production. About 10 days later, the other half of the plot of grafted vines is harvested. On the day of each harvest, it is vatted without destemming until it lands in the pneumatic press for direct pressing. Static racking for 12 hours, then it is racked into a concrete egg where fermentation begins spontaneously and lasts 9 months. The wine shows chalky citrus and salted nuts; a sea-kissed white of remarkable clarity and precision. 1,600 bottles made.
2 Javi Revert Viticultor ‘Simeta – Parcel·la Lossal de l’Àngel’, 2021 Valencia Red ($77)
100% Arcos from a one-acre plot on the south side of the Penya Foradà planted in 1970 on calcareous soil. The grapes are fermented in a concrete tank on native yeast; maceration, with 70% whole cluster, lasts around three weeks. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in concrete, after which it is aged in 500-liter barrels for one year, then refined for another three months in a concrete egg. It is bottled without filtration, and displays all the hallmarks of a luscious, dewy Mediterranean summer day, with wild berry notes behind tart cherry with a hint of dark chocolate. 1,400 bottles were filled in March 2023.
3 Javi Revert Viticultor ‘Sensal – Paratge Els Juncarejos’, 2022 Valencia Red ($36)
A blend of Monastrell, Bonicaire and Garnacha. Sensal is a village-style made from five plots located in Font de la Figuera that contain both old and young vines to reflect the viticultural identity of a town. The soils are primarily limestone-based and of various depths. Each plot is fermented separately on native yeasts after whole-cluster maceration lasting two weeks. The wine is then aged for nine months in concrete. The deeply tinted Monastrell and spicy Arcos combine to create a vibrant wine bursting with wild strawberry, cranberry, raspberry and cherry notes tinged with coastal herbs. 5,500 bottles made. It was bottled in May 2023.
When a generational shift overtakes an old, familiar wine zone, the first casualty is often conditioning. In days of yore, Rioja meant big, blustery, barrel-bludgeoned reds, where quality was measured by ‘crianza’—the years a Tempranillo blend spent first in oak, then in bottles. The farther the wine was away from the vineyard, the better it was supposed to be. Entry level Crianza wines undergo a two-year old process which keeps them at least a year in fifty-gallon barrels. Riserva sees three years of aging; Gran Reserva, five-years, with at least two years in oak. These wines are, by intent, filled with complexity, with the oldest displaying matured tertiary flavors of tobacco, leather, truffle, etc.
It’s a style of wine has its legions of apostles, but in a general sense, freshness over oak and a sense of place rather than a sense of wood is name game in of the modern era. Less ripeness is traded for more bracing acidity. Rioja may have been a bit slow to get the memo, and wine drinkers in America even more so, but the new wave of younger winemakers in Spain’s most famous wine-producing region are spreading the wings of innovation so wide that we can’t help but feel the influence.
In this package, we will feature three bodegas run by three charismatic winemaker who are offering a fresh take on an old style, breaking with tradition and frequently loosening the Tempranillo stranglehold in favor of a cornucopia of other varieties.
“We fight to preserve our culture, not to transform it,” announces Arturo de Miguel Blanco.
With his brother Kike (who joined him in 2010—‘Artuke’ is a portmanteau of both their first names), he cultivates about fifty acres of decades-old, high-elevation vineyards in Baños de Ebro in Rioja Alavesa. Working with blends of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, and Mazuelo (and often with white grapes in the mix) they are creating the sort of bright, fruit-and-mineral driven wines that best mirror both their terroir and new trends in Rioja.
“We buck the norms and also bureaucracy,” he says. “For example, we plant all bush vines, even our newest ones. Government aid goes to trellised vines because they can be mechanized and the yields are larger, but their resistance to water stress is lower. It sadden me to see the loss of old bush vines in this area; they’re being replaced by trellised plants.”
Blanco’s father Roberto produced bulk wine from the same land, but the brothers have seen fit to explore opportunities their soil might provide by doing a detailed study of various plots in Baños de Ebro, Ávalos, San Vicente de la Sonsierra and more recently, in Samaniego. Arturo’s conclusion was eye-opening:
“Rioja should be bottled along regional, village and single vineyard lines, similar to the Burgundian approach, and we should begin to eschew the traditional Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva classifications.”
1 Artuke ‘La Condenada’, 2020 Rioja – Baños de Ebro Red ($135)
80% Tempranillo with a blend of Graciano, Garnacha and Palomino Fino. The grapes are from vines about 40 years old grown on sandy soil at an altitude of about 1800 feet. Harvested by hand and aged in French oak barrels for 14 months, then bottled without sulfur after a soft filtration, it shows dynamic blackberry, cherry and strawberry notes swirling amid toasty vanilla and roast coffee beans with a finish well-balanced with spice and mineral note. 1,502 bottles made.
We’re fond of saying cavemen made wine by discovering naturally-fermented fruit while foraging, and then translating that natural happenstance to their rocky shelters. In 1995, Benjamín Romeo, winemaker and vine-grower, joined their ranks when he acquired a centuries-old cave hewn into the rock beneath the Castle of San Vicente de la Sonsierra in Rioja. He began to experiment with small-scale wine projects in the cave as he purchased more vineyard land, and meanwhile outfitted his parents’ garage with equipement to increase his capacity.
And then came his dream winery: “Between 2004 and 2006, I worked with architect Hector Herrera on the design,” says Benjamín. “It was built over the following two years and opened in June, 2008 to coincide with the summer solstice.”
It is a nature-centered endeavor with terraces covered with plants that blend in with the local vegetation. The winemaker adds, “The bodega has exposed concrete walls so that gradually they become coated with dust and end up melding with the earth from which they came.”
Benjamín Romeo currently owns 124 acres of vineyards spread across 60 different plots, most of which are bush vines. He works with organic compost and shreds vine shoots over the soil to increase moisture retention. Selection, both on the vineyard and the winery, is essential to Romeo’s way of operating: He uses 10,000-liter wooden vats; malolactic fermentation is mostly done in barrels; aging times for red wines range from 16 to 18 months and he takes moon cycles into account when it comes to handling wines.
Both the 2004 and 2005 vintages of Contador received 100-point scores on Robert Parker’s Review—an unprecedented achievement for a Spanish winery. In fact, it’s a feat so tough that only a caveman could do it.
2 Bodega Contador ‘Alma Contador’, 2020 Rioja – San Vicente de la Sonsierra Red ($135)
Romeo’s new red blend, 2020 Alma Contador, originates in three vineyards in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, each at different altitudes. It blends 92% Tempranillo with 8% Garnacha, which then matures in new French barriques for 20 months. The ‘soul’ of Contador is meant to showcases the power and elegance of Tempranillo with notes of black fruit, spice and vanilla. It is still quite young, but displays a structured palate with firm tannins and a long, lingering finish. 10,000 bottles produced.
In September, 2021 a wine that had been in the making for almost a decade was released at the Place de Bordeaux. Called ‘Yjar,’ it is a single vineyard cuvée from the foothills of the Sierra de Toloño in Rioja.
The wine was the brainchild of Telmo Rodríguez, who in 2011 returned to the idyllic family estate of Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri in Labastida after an 11-year absence. Intent on improving the bodega’s standing in the wine world while introducing ecologically-sound practices (viñedo ecológico, or organic vineyard, is one such example), his first step was to isolated those grapes grown at Remelluri from grapes sourced from long-standing suppliers, sending the latter to Lindes de Remelluri, a village wine range that includes a red wine from San Vicente de la Sonsierra and another one from Labastida.
“Remelluri has not been ill-treated since the Middle Ages,” Telmo says with pride. “When my parents bought it in the 1960s, it was farmed with animals, fertilized with manure, and grass grew freely among the vines. What’s so special about it is the proximity to the mountains, something that other properties lack.”
Now extending to nearly 370 acres, vineyards stretch across three valleys; the central area known as Remelluri, plus Valderremelluri and Villaesclusa. Soils vary within the clay-limestone sphere at elevations that range from of the Sonsierra. Elevation ranges from 2000 feet to nearly 3000—remarkably high for viticulture. These higher plots are reserved for white varieties.
3 Remelluri ‘Yjar’, 2018 Rioja – Labastida de Álava Red ($160)
Pronounced (more or less) ‘Yar,’ the wine is a field blend of Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha, Gran Negro and Rojal. The vineyard, 9 acres in size, sits on an eroded slope with its own water supply patter; the soil contains a high concentration of carbonates, accumulated to a depth of around two feet. The wine is juicy with black cherry, crushed blueberry and cocoa powder that evolve to truffle, black pepper, incense and freshly chopped herbs. 5,988 bottles produced.
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Posted on 2024.10.25 in France, Wine-Aid Packages