Tempranillo

In an old bodega in the Parral Monestary in Nieva, Ismael Gozalo makes wines on seriously old pre-phylleoxera Verdejo vines.

The sandy soils of this area have protected the vines which date back to 1847.

Ismael also has parcels of Syrah, Merlot, Rufete, Mencía and Tempranillo, but it is definitely the Verdejo which takes center stage at the domaine.

Locally, Mariano is best known for his wizardry in the wine cellar. He knows a thing or two about fermentation!
In the rest of the world, he is known for making clean, pure, easy and highly enjoyable wines - many of them of the Ancestral / Pet Nat / fun bubbles type.

Laureano Serres makes wines as natural as they come. After a career in IT, he moved back to his native Catalunya to work at the local wine cooperative, until his dreams of producing natural wines became too radical for the cooperative and they showed him the door. Happily for us, this prompted Laureano to start his own winery, making wines his way. He started out in his own cellar in El Pinell de Brai in Tarragona, and now makes a large range of wines with nothing added at all from his 6ha of low yielding vines.

Julian Ruiz runs a pretty impressive operation in Castilla La Mancha, with over 150 ha of agriculture including 50 ha of vines. Most of the vines are extremely old and ungrafted, producing low yields. Practices are mainly organic with some biodynamic processes sneaking into the regime. Wines undergo a coarse filtration with 10-20 mg of SO2 before bottling.