Jose Antonio García, pure romanticism



In the heart of Bierzo (León, Northwest Spain),  is located Valtuille de Abajo, a small village surrounded by its old vineyards, and there the winemaker Jose Antonio Garcia has its winery . A small producer who quickly changed his two both restaurants in Barcelona to come up a new business in this region, Bierzo, a land wellknown  for its mencia grape, and to develop some of the most interesting wines there.




 And that's where he began to shape his project to take over a vineyard he inherited from his grandfather, and has gradually increased to 22 hectares today. In his talk conveys his passion for wine, for land, for the vineyard.

The French region of Burgundy is his mirror, and thus gives these wines a Burgundian character, the same, shared with his friend and neighbor Raúl Pérez, which is declared admirer.

In the label on the bottles the design is a bird, which Jose associated with freedom, the wine as a living being, must demonstrate itself freely, unattached, like a bird, it's all about a philosophy about wine. Their wines are previously pictured, imagined, conceived.

Combining tradition and technology, he produces as in the old  times, although adapted to the taste of nowadays. On his own style of making wine there is a place to stomp the grapes, and at the same time forcing the vine to compete for higher quality obtaining low yields, wines unfiltered or poorly filtered, using egg white to clarify, etc.

Its hallmark is still the first wine he produced, "Aires de vendimia", a gorgeous red  wine 100% Mencia grape aged in French oak barrels; but gradually it has been making a place a great exceptional value wine, "Un Culín". They are joined by a white wine from Godello grape, "Chuqueiro", (a young godello from the plot with the same name in four months on lees). Furthermore, now it is in the process of developing a new brand Godello wine aged in barrel with the burgundy style, old vines, and will be released only a few bottles for experimental purposes. It is a complex, spectacular wine and surely will be talking about in the future.



 

Their vineyards are spread along Valtuille (500 meters and clay soil) and Corullón (about 900 meters high and slate soil). They are around 65 years old on average, which means that we can find vines over 80 and even 100 years.


Jose works with short productions (most produced wine, A Culín reachs the 30,000 bottles, and The Chuqueiro about 4000 bottles in 2014). Its horizon goes through stabilizing output around 70,000 bottles in the future.

We are facing a real "garage winemaker" .  If we take this definition as new and small producers who believe in quality over quantity. An amazing winegrower who is able to transmit to his wines all the character of the vineyards he owns, the french concept of "terroir" in all its splendor in Bierzo region.


                     
Jose Antonio García
Viticultor
C/El Puente S/N. 24530 Valtuille de Abajo, León, España
+ Tf 00 34 987 56 22 23 - + Fax 00 34 987 56 22 23 - +00 34 648 070 581
email: jose@g2wines.com

Comments

Popular Posts