Malas Uvas 2021 - La Perdida

Many of Nacho's parcels around Larouco lay abandoned before he restored them to health, hidden among bush or mountain trails. These untrellised vines, planted in the early-mid 20th century, tell us much about the fascinating viticultural history of this rugged, dramatic landscape. Nacho began making wine in Larouco, close to his grandmother's home in Seadur, after she gifted him a parcel of vines just outside the village. That was in 2013. Since then, Nacho left his career as a biologist behind, becoming immersed in his winemaking project and his mission to preserve these old vineyards and varieties by showcasing their quality. In the face of encroaching pressures to conform to market demands and the homogenising prescriptions of industrial farming, Nacho has stood firm, an iconoclast of sorts, and persevered in making thrilling, terroir-driven wines, that tell an almost forgotten story of this region's fascinating history. Many of the sites are dramatic and remote, a quality that often finds an uncanny expression in Nacho's wines.

Nacho farms 5 hectares or so in total, mostly old untrellised vines on granite, slate, and clay between 450 and 650 metres. Farming is organic in practice, with some biodynamic and mycological preparations with nettle, horsetail, and comfrey infusions replacing conventional sprays, and fungal preparations are applied to restore soil biology on parcels that had been left to degrade. He has declined organic certification as the scheme permits some chemical use in the vineyards (certification is also costly). Having spent a month working with Nacho during the 2021 harvest, the rich biodiversity among his vines tells it’s own story.

His cellar in Larouco is as lofi as it gets... Gravity carries the juice from the press to a basement where padilla tinajas, old barrels, and stainless tanks are preferred to finish fermentation and age the wines. Everything rests on its lees through winter and is bottled the following spring without fining or filtration. La Perdida means "the lost." Nacho chose the name for the vineyards themselves, most of which had disappeared into the landscape, forgotten to all but the well-trained eye.

Palomino is not a permitted variety under the Valdeorras DO regulations, and here in the rugged interior of northwest Spain, it certainly feels a long way from home. It was first planted in Galicia post phylloxera, when its high yields and compatibility with american rootstocks made it a preference among local growers. Under Franco (who was himself Gallego), the variety became even more ubiquitous, overtaking indigenous Godello. Its high yields suited the co-operative, volume driven agriculture model of the regime, which promoted the production of cheap wine for bulk export. These associations with Franco linger, and most producers in the DO have grubbed it up or left the old plantings abandoned. By the time Nacho started making wine, these surviving plantings of Palomino were now many decades old, not sprayed with chemicals, growing wild among the grasses and shrubs in abandoned plots. Over time, they adapted to the challenging conditions that vines endure in Galicia's interior and became almost naturalised, with at least three distinct mutations identified. These vines produce tiny yields of concentrated juice, with the roots reaching deep into the granite. Here in the cool altitude of Valdeorras, the palomino retains acidity right through to harvest, while the quartz rich granite reflects heat onto the bunches ripening the phenolics in the thick skins of the berries. Dona Branca is more at home here in Valdeorras, it being a star in the vast constellation of indigenous varieties that grow here in the northwest of the Iberian penninsula. Thick-skinned, it brings a crisp-fruited aromatic lift and a bright acidity.

Malas Uvas means "bad grapes." Palomino on granite, at very low yield, with skin contact and amphora ageing, is not the prescribed practice in Valdeorras. This wine makes us wonder why!

Grapes: Palomino, Doña Blanca

Region: Larouco, Valdeorras, Galicia, Spain

ABV: 15%