Description
Goyo García Viadero, “Finca Los Quemados”
This is the second time in a week that I’ve gotten to present an iconoclastic, game-changing Spanish wine, and I couldn’t be happier about it. This one’s from the swanky Ribera del Duero, home to some of the priciest, most swooned-over red wines in Spain, but what got us all swooning about this one was not its reasonable price—noteworthy as that is—but its wholly unique character.
When you think about Ribera del Duero, you think about saturated, polished reds from estates that look to the top châteaux of Bordeaux for inspiration. Many of the region’s most celebrated wines are richly extracted, lavishly oaked powerhouses, which isn’t a bad thing, mind you, but isn’t what Goyo García Viadero is going for. As if to signal his stylistic leanings, Goyo puts today’s single-vineyard showstopper in a Burgundy bottle; his goal with “Finca Los Quemados” is tension, vibrancy, perfume, soil character…in all, a profile and scale more in line with great Burgundy than Bordeaux. Whereas many of the great names in Ribera del Duero choose shock and awe, Goyo goes with quiet seduction. This 2018 combines power and finesse beautifully, and there’s a dusty earth component that evokes the high, desert-like plateau that is the Duero River Valley. This is Ribera del Duero reimagined, with a focus on 100% Tempranillo and 100% terroir expression. For any Spanish wine aficionado, it is a new reference point in this star-crossed appellation.
García Viadero is a “native son,” too. His family has had a presence in the Ribera del Duero for hundreds of years, and Goyo himself helped his father plant vineyards around the village of Roa when he was just 16 years old. Although he didn’t begin releasing wines under his own label until 2008, Goyo and his wife, Semova Georgieva, have assembled an enviable collection of old vine parcels (including some Goyo helped plant all those years ago), among which is the one that supplies today’s wine, “Finca Los Quemados.” Situated at one of the highest elevations in the appellation (900 meters!) this site is planted to 100% Tempranillo rooted in sandy, gravelly soils that are rich in iron, lending them a characteristically rusty hue. When you taste the wine from this site, you can see it, vividly, in your mind’s eye. As if to hammer home the “old school” personality of his wines, Goyo’s barrel room is housed in a hand-dug cave that dates to Roman times.
Ribera del Duero is a singular place, a region where conventional wisdom would say that viticulture is impossible. The rainfall each year wouldn’t be enough for unirrigated vines were it not for the sandy topsoils that allow water to pass through and be stored in more alluvial sedimentation down below. Furthermore, 200 days free of frost is generally considered the minimum for a healthy grape growing season, but in Ribera, it can be as little as 185. Thankfully, the intense Spanish sun and sweltering temperatures—at the peak of what vines can handle—make up for the shorter season. And of course, in this dry and arid region, those soaring temperatures come crashing down as soon as the sun sets, preserving the precious acidity of the local Tempranillo clone, Tinta del País.
For his Finca Los Quemados bottling (only about 500 cases of which are made), Goyo hand-harvests fruit in late October (nice hang time!) and de-stems everything before fermenting on ambient yeasts in stainless steel. Maceration on skins lasts a whopping three months, after which the finished wine is aged for 12 months in 8- to 10-year-old French oak barriques.
In the glass, it has the textbook deep ruby hue of Ribera del Duero, but it’s completely devoid of the new oak aromas that characterize so many of the region’s wines. Instead, it’s a full-bore explosion of fruit and earth, with aromas/flavors of tiny dark woodland berries (mulberry, blueberry, black currant), damp violet, pencil lead, espresso grounds, roasted meat, and dusty earth. It is medium-plus in body and full of minerality and tension—a real departure from the chunkier, more viscous examples that have come to define Ribera del Duero. Decant your bottle(s) if drinking now and pair the wine with grilled lamb chops or kabobs to showcase its gamy, earthy side. For all its concentrated fruit, this is a savory, soulful red that’s built for food. Enjoy!
