Couto Mixto
Francisco “Xico” Pérez started making wine near the Galician hamlet of Santa María de Mandín in 1996. Raised in the area by his Grandparents, Xico grew up surrounded by traditional viticultural practices and learned how to farm from his grandfather. Santa María de Mandín, with a population of less than 200 and a single church on the central plaza, lies along the Rio Tâmega, next to the Portuguese border and within the Monterrei D.O.; Xico’s first wines were sold at the only local tavern.
Francisco Pérez’s family has a long history in the Tâmega river valley of southern, inland Galicia, and the area itself has an even longer history of high-quality viticulture as a part of the patrimony of the Counts of Monterrei. Grapes arrived with the Romans, and by the 9th century grape growing and wine making was widely practiced and expanded by Catholic religious orders. The area is uniquely positioned, with sheltering mountains, a warm summer, and a cooling influence from the Atlantic Ocean. By the 17th century, the area’s wines had a reputation for quality and were exported widely to Latin America, and widespread viticulture continued until the crises of the early 20th century: phylloxera, civil war, and emigration. Winemaking in Monterrei began to rebound in the 1990s, and the region’s wines experienced a revival helmed in large part by José Luis Mateo’s Quinta de Muradella. Nonetheless, Monterrei remains the smallest and probably least known wine region in Galicia. In 2006, almost 10 years after he began making wine, Xico started making and bottling wines under the Couto Mixto label for wider sale. Working with 3 hectares of vines that he owns, the goal was to make more serious and thoughtful wines than the one he sells locally. His approach had always emphasized traditional organic farming with only sulfur and copper in the vineyard and the local varieties of grapes (Godello, Doña Blanca, Treixadura for white wines, Caiño Longo, Zamarrica, Brancaellao, Merenzao, Mencía, Espadeiro, and Tinta Amarela for red). The Monterrei valley has widely variable expositions and soil types, but Xico’s grapes are primarily planted on granite and shale soils at around 500m elevation. Over the past few years, Xico’s approach in the vineyard has been deeply informed by his friend, colleague, and collaborator Bernardo Estévez. The pair are applying principles of permaculture and regenerative agriculture in the vines, utilizing varied treatments encompassing mycology, fermented forest products, the no-till Fukuoka method, and other strategies. The goal is to work entirely without chemical additives like sulfur and copper – which is very complicated in the humid and warm valley where fungal and insect threats are common. In the winery, the process is kept simple: the white grapes are left whole cluster and pressed immediately, while the red grapes are destemmed placed in an ancient stone lagar and stomped by foot. Both the red and the white wines finish fermentation and age in old, neutral 500L barrels made from chestnut. The wines are not clarified or filtered and bottled with little or no sulfur addition. The project is very small, with only about 3000L of wine produced every year, split between the red and white bottlings. The Wines
Couto Mixto Blanco is Godello, Doña Blanca, and Treixadura from vines near the town of Mandín. The vines were planted in the late 90s on granitic and shale soils at about 500 meters of elevation. The grapes were hand harvested and pressed directly with a manually operated vertical press and fermented and aged in 500L used chestnut barrels. Bottled without fining or filtering and with only a small addition of sulfur.
Couto Mixto Tinto is Caiño Longo, Zamarrica, Brancellao, Merenzao, Mencia, Espadeiro, Tinta Amarela from vines near the town of Mandín. The vines are in two parcels: one was planted in 2009, the other in the mid-1970s. Both parcels are at about 500 meters elevation and on granite and shale soils. The grapes were hand harvested and destemmed, then footstomped to start fermentation on their skins in an ancient stone lagar for roughly 7 days, then pressed to finish fermenting and to age in 500L and 600L used chestnut barrels for 6 months. Bottled without fining or filtering and with only a small addition of sulfur. |
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