Comando G, Las Umbrias 2014

Incredible bottle from the excellent Commando G winery.
96 Robert Parker.
Perfect condition, always kept at 15deg in underground natural wine cellar.
Careful packing, appropriate for this very special product.

Las Umbrías is a single vineyard wine from primarily granite soils that shows the most delicate and floral character of any of the parcel wines of Comando G. Like its siblings, it is remarkably pale in color, but looks are deceiving as the aromas and subtle red fruit flavors are deftly balanced by fine tannin and mineral acidity. There are small patches of clay in the otherwise granitic sandy soil of Las Umbrías. Perhaps that’s what gives the wine added poise as the winemaking is the same here as with the other wines: hand-harvested, native fermentation, long maceration, and aging in a 10-12HL oak vat.

Daniel Landi and Fernando Garcia, friends since college, found themselves work- ing in the area centered around the Sierra de Gredos: Daniel at his family’s es- tate, Bodegas Jimenez-Landi, and Fernando at Bodega Marañones. Drawn to the mountains and rumors of small, nearly inaccessible vineyard plots located high in the Sierra de Gredos, over time, they began purchasing and leasing the best sites they could find, creating their own project, Comando G in 2008. Along with the pioneers of the Priorat, Daniel and Fernando are redefining what was previously viewed as a workhorse variety, Garnacha, into something that can rival the ele- gance and finesse of Pinot in Burgundy or Syrah in the northern Rhône.

The vineyards that Daniel and Fernando have assembled are all farmed biody- namically. These vines range from 50 to 80 years old and are planted on sandy soils weathered from granite, slate, and quartz. A combination of high altitude, freely draining soils, and a mild and fairly humid micro-climate – for central Spain – guarantees a long growing season and a modest alcohol level in the finished wines. The resultant wines are startlingly pale, extraordinarily aromatic, and in- tensely flavorful. Each site is harvested by hand, usually in October, fermented by indigenous yeasts in open-top French oak casks, then aged in a combination of 500-700L French oak barrels, foudre, and clay amphorae.