Uncover Spain’s Pure Wines on a Journey By way of This Gorgeous Area

The air was thick with the odor of yeast and morning dew. Julien Ben Hamou López, the 38-year-old vintner behind Bodegas Coruña del Conde, a family-owned property in northern Spain, led us via a darkish tunnel that was stacked with dusty, unlabeled bottles of pure wines. López informed our group of 9 how the traditional Romans had used the tunnels as escape routes from invaders, then grabbed a number of of the mysterious bottles, wiped off the condensation, and led us out into the daylight to style them. 

This was the primary of a number of vineyard visits organized by Alternatives de la Viña, a boutique importer began in Brooklyn that focuses on natural and low-intervention wines from the Iberian Peninsula. Based by Álvaro de la Viña, a gregarious entrepreneur from Spain, and his spouse, the corporate started main journeys as a method for connoisseurs to satisfy a few of Spain’s high pure vintners.

Within the spring, I joined a gaggle of American wine sellers and sommeliers on a weeklong tour of the Castilla y León area, about 90 minutes north of Madrid. Whereas the space is understood for its big-box wineries and daring Tempranillos, we’d be specializing in winemakers who keep away from utilizing industrial machines, pesticides, added sugars, or yeast. “Wine isn’t as glamorous as folks assume,” stated de la Viña, who leads the excursions himself. “Wine is about historical past and folks.”

We had an introductory dinner at La Caníbal, a full of life restaurant within the Lavapiés neighborhood of Madrid that serves pure wines on faucet. The next morning we piled right into a grey Volkswagen van and drove northwest to Castilla Termal Monasterio de Valbuena, a wellness resort housed in a Twelfth-century monastery within the coronary heart of Ribera del Duero, a prized wine district in the area.

Relaxed after a day within the spa, we drove an hour east to López’s 20-acre winery, Bodegas Coruña del Conde, named after the traditional village during which it’s situated. He provided us samples of his cheekily named wines, together with “I’m Pure Don’t Panic” and “BC/DC,” straight from the fermentation tanks. Contemplating that the wines have been made with Tempranillo grapes, they tasted surprisingly gentle and refreshing.

Then we made our option to a stone eating room carved into the hillside the place, in a monstrous fireside, López made a hearth from pruned vines after which grilled milk-fed lamb on a steel grate. As we helped ourselves to an expansion of soppy sheep’s-milk cheese, chorizo, and peppery summer time sausages, he uncorked a beneficiant number of daring vintages, together with a cloudy white made out of Airén grapes. As I took within the views from the hilltop, stomach full, sipping the final of my unfiltered purple, I used to be struck by how far pure wine making had progressed in Spain from its early days as a cult pastime amongst wine geeks.

On the third day, we drove to Bodegas Bigardo, an experimental vineyard within the city of Toro began in 2016 by Kiko Calvo, who fashions himself as one thing of a insurgent. Whereas the area, additionally known as Toro (which suggests bull), is understood for its punch-you-in-the-face reds, Calvo takes a softer method, producing wines with extra delicate construction and steadiness. 

After giving us a tour of the 60-acre winery, Calvo and his sister led us to a picnic desk alongside the Douro River and served us a lunch of stewed cod with rice and braised bull tail, paired with a number of reds. One bottle, a 2020 Pellejo, was made with grapes from 100-year-old Tinta de Toro vines that develop on his property. Calvo’s affection for the native grape, and the city, is clear. “I’m in love with Toro,” he stated as he savored his personal creation. 

There have been extra feasts available. The following day we hiked up the Gredos mountain vary to a small natural outfit that focuses on outdated Garnacha vines planted on steep slopes and at excessive altitudes. Named after its Australian-born proprietor, the winery Daniel Ramos is situated 2,700 ft above sea degree, which protects the grapes from the recent, dry local weather. ​In contrast to the manicured vines of standard wineries, these vegetation have been untamed, rising in a subject of wildflowers and grasses.

For lunch, we headed to a small cinder-block warehouse within the city of Tiemplo. There we met Ramos’s spouse and enterprise associate, Pepi, who was stirring a cauldron of pork and paprika-flecked potatoes over a blazing hearth. Ramos threw thick steaks on a grill whereas we scooped up vinegar-soaked anchovies and kicked round a soccer ball with their younger son. Ramos introduced out a dozen bottles of Garnacha wine, together with a 2018 classic for which the grapes have been harvested by hand, spontaneously fermented with airborne yeast, and aged in clay amphorae for a few 12 months. 

Spaniards have a phrase for moments when the after-meal dialog flows just like the wine and there’s no to-do: sobremesa. And it’s precisely how a Spanish meal must be. Our crew lingered previous the purpose of fullness to style extra vintages that Ramos doesn’t promote to the general public, like a Moscatel pét-nat. “I made 100 bottles however drank 50,” he stated, chuckling. 

Our final wine-soaked sobremesa was at MicroBio Wines, an progressive vineyard within the city of Nieva that makes use of clay jugs and handblown glass bottles to age its low-intervention wines. We uncorked a number of glowing wines made out of Verdejo grapes and trekked down right into a cryptlike cellar courting again to the eleventh century. The partitions have been caked in pure molds and yeasts, which, we have been informed, add to the wine’s terroir. After a heavenly lunch of roasted pork leg with grainy mustard, we toured a 5,000-bottle assortment of pure wines amassed by Ismael Gozalo, the proprietor.

As I sat swirling the final sips of considered one of MicroBio’s Verdejos, made with grapes from a 280-year-old vine that grows on the property, I used to be struck by the distinction. I used to be sitting in a plastic chair in a warehouse, surrounded by pallets and barrels. My boots have been dusty from trudging via vineyards. But in only one week I had tasted a number of the most spectacular wine and meals I had skilled in six years of dwelling in Spain. De la Viña was proper: pure wine shouldn’t be all the time glamorous, however in Castilla y León, it’s typically distinctive. 

Seven-day journeys with Alternatives de la Viña from $4,700, all-inclusive.

A model of this story first appeared within the December 2024 subject of Journey + Leisure beneath the headline “By the Glass.”