Ribera del Duero from the Good Old Days

A trip in the way-back machine: the intensely beautiful Ribera del Dueros from Goyo Garcia.

Dear friends,

In Spain’s Ribera del Duero, a region dominated by dense, powerful, and oftentimes anonymous wines, Goyo García’s singular style is a breath of fresh mountain air. His are unabashed “mountain” wines: lucidly fresh and deeply mineral, but structured for food and/or aging.

García is taking the path less traveled, making red wines from a blend of red and white grapes. He didn’t choose this method to break out of the box, but instead because his three tiny parcels of old vines reach back to a previous era where the interplanting across color boundaries was more common. These beautiful 21st-century renditions make one wonder how this went out of fashion in the first place. What can we say, it was the ‘80s and Points were everything.

These old parcels have something even more important going for them: terroir. In the old days, only select plots of land in the Duero were planted to vines. These majuelos or vine islands were set in a sea of cereal crops. When Ribera del Duero started to get more popular, that sea receded as vine-land overtook it. But what was lost was the old wisdom about the site selection for the vines, based on subtle differences in elevation, aspect, and soil. When Garcia came back to his native Ribera del Duero, it was clear to him that the old parcels were the future.

The wines also tick a lot of the “natural wine” boxes: organic viticulture, hand harvesting, wild-yeast fermentation, little to no SO2—but the wines come across as traditional and classical. Inspired by the wines of Pierre Overnoy in the Jura (his mother's hometown boasts a wine bar run by a Jura nut), Goyo set out a little over a decade ago to show the beauty and potential of his native Duero through a similarly pure lens. He has now truly hit his stride—taste and you will believe.

These wines are in stock now at our NY warehouse. All confirmed wines will be available for delivery or pick-up by Tuesday, Feb. 7th. West Coast customers, don't forget about our low-cost consolidated shipping option.  

Cheers,
JR Thomason

Goyo García, Graciano "Finca Cascorrales", 2014 $36.99
Not labeled as Ribera del Duero because it is all from Graciano (34-year-old vines), this is fermented in steel. Dark-fruited and spicy but delicate, with a stout but refined tannic structure reminiscent of Cru Barbaresco. 

Goyo García, Ribera del Duero “Finca el Peruco”, 2012 $46.99
85% Tempranillo and 15% Albillo from way, way up high at a site with almost pure limestone. This is deeply mineral and linear, the fruit vividly fresh and almost Burgundian, with a very long, precise finish. No sulfur added!

Goyo García, Ribera del Duero “Finca Vinas de Arcilla”, 2011 $49.99
The most powerful wine in the lineup, made solely from old-vines Tempranillo at 800 meters elevation and more clay in the soil. With over 5 years of age, this is approachable but will certainly reward further aging. As with the other wines, this is exhilaratingly fresh and mineral-driven, but with weightier fruit and a denser texture. 

Goyo García, Liébana “Cobero”, 2013  $42.99
This wine is actually from the mountains of Cantabria to the north, where Garcia's mother's family is from. The vines are a minimum of 80 years old, with many topping the century mark, and the blend is 80% Mencia (80%) and 20% Palomino (20%). Aromatic and delicately salty like the nearby sea breeze, with a lacy but firm structure, this wine is all about elegance