Caballo Blanco Wine

Review published in the newspaper "La Razón" by Andrés Sánchez Magro

From time to time it is a good idea to get away from the big wine regions in search of unusual and historically faithful efforts. In the little-known Almería, specifically in the eastern part of the province, there is a winery called Sierra Almagrera that continues a tradition dating back more than three millennia, dating back to vines planted by the Phoenicians in these parts. Although this poetic memory does not tarnish a red wine with many contemporary characteristics, because, as we have been finding out recently, the unashamed commitment to freshness and fruit is the hallmark of this wine. To smooth out some imbalances, two years of good French oak are used, which may be the rounded counterpoint. Aromatic intensity especially for a full-bodied palate, but which could do with some fine-tuning. We like its sinuous aromatic complexes and some mineral touches that I imagine will be accentuated vintage after vintage. In the Cuevas de Almanzora, at medium altitude, a wine described as a signature wine is expressed, which in this case is not a rhetorical exercise.

Desert wines

Article published in the magazine "Planeta Vino" about Bodega Sierra Almagrera.

The same, joining forces between producers, is what Diego Gea, a businessman in the hospitality sector who in 2006 founded Bodega de Serón in this village between the Filabres and Estancias mountain ranges in Almería, the only winery in the north of the province until recently, is looking for. "This area was a communication point between the coast and the interior of the peninsula and there have always been vineyards for table grapes and for private winemaking," he says. He discovered an estate with old Tempranillo and started with the idea of making wine in a municipality known mainly for its ham drying sheds.

Gea saw the vineyard as the perfect complement to the ham production and set to work with the winemaking process, planting Syrah, Moscatel and Sauvignon Blanc on a total of six hectares in soils with a high iron content. Oenologist Cristina Calvache, who also has her own winemaking project in Alboloduy, at the foot of Almeria's Sierra Nevada mountain range, is in charge of the winemaking process as a consultant.

Gea makes around 20,000 bottles a year of which he sells the entire production in the province, mainly thanks to the tourism that populates the coast, although he acknowledges that "we don't live off the bodega". He does recall failed projects that have ended up disappearing and blames it on a lack of adaptation to the market or the products.

He sees the future of Almeria wines going through the unity of producers, as his notion of the consumer tells him that the majority profile is that of a tourist who knows that Almeria exists but does not know specific areas, so that a differentiation in terms of regions or places does not add value to his project: "We have to take advantage of the moment of our gastronomy, its strength, to make us stronger. We have been around for years and we sell everything", says this part-time winemaker who has found his formula for success with a solitary winery.

At about the same latitude, but close to the coast, in Cuevas de Almanzora, is the Sierra Almagrera project. It was launched in 2006 from four hectares of vineyards that make up an orchard in the middle of an arid, almost lunar landscape that nevertheless takes advantage of the relative altitude, 350 metres above sea level, and the refreshing breeze from the Mediterranean, which is barely 15 kilometres away. Its promoter is José Miguel García, former manager of a telephone company and owner of a company that exploits products made from aloe vera, including one that mitigates the effects of chemotherapy.

José Miguel García, who is assisted by oenologist Ignacio Figueroa, a technician at Bodegas Raíz de Guzmán (Ribera del Duero), says that his vineyard, surrounded by nothingness from the point of view of vine cultivation, has the oldest viticultural history in Spain: he claims that the Phoenicians planted the first vines on the peninsula in this area three thousand years ago.

The tradition was interrupted for three millennia until the introduction of what seems like a well thought-out varietal catalogue, with Monastrell, Garnacha, Syrah and the inevitable Tempranillo. In 2013 it launched its first wine, the red Caballo Blanco.

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2.000 visitors and 5.000 tapas tasted at the fair "Almanzora Gourment".

Review published in the newspaper "La Voz de Almería".

More than 2,000 visitors have enjoyed the II Food and Agriculture Fair "Almanzora Gourmet", which has been held this weekend in Cuevas del Almanzora with a greater success of participation than the previous edition. Figures such as these and the 5,000 tapas tasted during these days endorse the success of a fair that shows the best that the region has to offer. The mayor, Antonio Fernández, is convinced that "this fair, despite its youth, will grow and consolidate its place in the gastronomic calendar of Almería".

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