Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The first red to be bottled and sold is the 2020 La Bruja de Rozas, which feels a little more reductive this year. The grapes were picked before the torrential rains, so the wine shows a little riper than the wines that were picked after (the single vineyards). It's flinty and with a note of struck match, with good ripeness at 14.5% alcohol. This is always aromatic and floral, pale and surprisingly ethereal and expressive, a very pleasant and surprising wine that tends to please most people. This is the wine that I buy in volume, as it's a superb introduction to the Comando G portfolio and style at a very good price. Even though the nose is never short of spectacular, to me the signature here is the super fine grainy tannins from the decomposed granite soils. This goes back to the freshness of 2016 and 2018, perhaps a little rounder and less herbal, somewhere in between the two vintages.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
Sitting just north of La Mancha, Spain’s (and Europe’s, for that matter) largest classified wine region, this region is much smaller than the vast La Mancha. However, Vinos de Madrid DO is a relatively large region in and of itself, with four subregions that start about 9 miles from the city center. Three of the subregions form a semicircle around the southern suburbs, Arganda, Navalcarnero and San Martín, where styles vary from one to another. El Molar, situated directly north of the city, is the newly created 4th subregion.
Since Vinos de Madrid was granted DO status in 1990, it has immersed itself in local wine production. Since then, substantial efforts have been made to raise quality and knowledge of the wines produced here. Millions of tourists who visit Spain’s capital city each year help the wines gain recognition and popularity across the globe. The growing investment through the years has paid off and export markets are increasingly interested in Vinos de Madrid wines.
While Tempranillo is the most planted grape variety in the Arganda subregion in the southeast, Garnacha is the dominant grape in all other subregions, including El Molar in the north, Navalcarnero in the south, and especially San Martín de Valdeiglesias in the west.