Grape

Garnacha/Grenache

Its Origins

"Curro Bareño and Jesus Olivares—the duo behind groundbreaking Galician projects Fedellos de Couto, and Ronsel de Sil—are now bringing their vision and expertise much closer to home, to San Martin de Valdeiglesias in the Sierra de Gredos, where both started their careers. Ca’ di Mat (literally, “House of Fools” in a Piedmontese dialect) is the name of their new project and is a collaboration between the two brats (a fedello is a brat in Galician dialect) and long-time friends of theirs who own a family farm in the area. The climate is full-on continental, with healthy rainfall and colder winds. Their old vines are bush grown, and sit at around 800–850 meters high. The ruggedness of the terrain, the austerity of the climate and the age of the vines add up to crazy and hard labor cultivate grapes and make wines here, but the combination helps the “fools” of Ca’ di Mat realize their ideal wine: fluid, delicate, and open.Ca’ di Mat’s red wines owe their surprisingly light color to the work in their organically raised vines. Curro and Jesus prune lightly, and encourage high productivity aiming for rich vines and big grapes that are “not forced”. Winemaking is non-intrusive, with spontaneous fermentations in concrete. It is hard to believe that these pale reds undergo such long maceration periods—ninety days sometimes—but their work is so delicate, the grapes are foot-trodden softly and the must separated by hand from the skins and stems, that the heat and power of Garnacha give way to a subtly aromatic and fruity juice. The whites are expansive and expressive, their weight balanced by a tense mineral current. Élèvage is as neutral as possible, in concrete tanks, and mostly-used French oak." — Bowler Wines

What The Critics Say

91+/100 Parker's Wine Advocate, Luis Gutierrez

"The village red 2017 Valautín Garnacha was produced with grapes from many small plots of old head-pruned vines on granite soils in San Martín de Valdeiglesias. Made with full clusters, it had a soft maceration that lasted three months and then matured in different-sized oak containers (300-, 500-, 1,000- and 2,500-liter) for 12 months. The color and nose remind me of a Garnacha-based Châteauneuf-du-Pape (dare I say Rayas), reflecting a textbook Mediterranean vintage—aromatic, ripe, expressive, open, a bit heady, really impressive. The palate is medium-bodied and somewhat delicate, with very fine tannins and pungent and focused flavors. This is an impressive debut. 6,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in August 2019.." Drink 2020 - 2023