Rioja ‘El Fugas‘ - Tempranillo, Grenache & Viura (20)

65% Tempranillo, 30% Garnacha en 5% Viura & Garnacha Blanca | fieldblend | single vineyard in Briones 'El Fugas' | meer dan 100 jaar oude bush vines | 550 meter hoogte | klei met kalkgravel | volledig ontsteeld | gisting in open kuipen | rijping voor 10 maanden in 500l Frans eiken | 650 flessen geproduceerd | wat rijpere wijn | wilde aardbei | kaneel | tabak | eucalyptus | hout verfijnd | donker fruit | eenmalig gemaakt 

José Gil

Zelden een wijnmaker ontmoet die op jonge leeftijd al zo toegewijd is aan zijn wijngaarden en zo snel naam en faam maakt binnen de wijnwereld. José Gil en zijn vrouw Vicky runnen samen 5ha aan wijngaarden in Rioja. Al hun wijngaarden zijn terug te vinden rondom het “grand cru" dorp San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Hier hebben Olivier Rivière en Abel en Maite Mendoza ook hun wijngaarden liggen. Vaak zijn de percelen niet groter dan een kwart hectare en tegen of zelfs over de 100 jaar oud. 

In 2021 roept wijnjournalist Tim Atkim MW José en Vicky uit tot "Young Winemaker of the Year” in zijn speciale Rioja Report. Ze maken wijnen op basis van single vineyards en één Vino de Pueblo (village wijn). José heeft stage gelopen in de Bourgogne en Mosel en heeft zo zijn kijk op de wijngaarden van Rioja doen veranderden. 

Review

The 2020 El Fugas comes from a soft slope in the zone of Las Ventas de Valpierre in Briones, where the soils have more clay and limestone gravels, an ancient vineyard (they talk about 140 years!) that produced a round and gentle wine. It's a blend of Tempranillo with some 25% Garnacha and some whites that matured in a used 500-liter barrel that marked the wine with some toasty and cereal-like notes, a bit candied, making for a more commercial profile of wine—creamer, approachable and gentle. Unfortunately, they only had access to those grapes in 2020. One single 500-liter barrel filled some 680 bottles in September 2021. 93/100 Luis Gutiérrez 

Jose Gil is one of the leading young producers in Rioja and the whole of Spain. He comes from a family of vignerons in San Vicente de la Sonsierra. He works the vineyards and makes the wine together with his wife. They now work eight hectares of vineyards and do all the work themselves. In 2021 they have more plots, and they fermented a white (around 1,000 bottles) and will do a total of 23,000 bottles. The absolute maximum they can do would be around 50,000 or 60,000 bottles. In 2019, there was frost in the higher part of San Vicente, unusual in the sloped vineyards by the Sierra Cantabria, and it further concentrated the wines that were already powerful because of a dry and warm year. They implemented some more changes in 2020, including larger barrels and new coopers they visited in Burgundy. And the vintage in San Vicente was rainier, the weather was warm, and there was a lot of mildew. It rained during the harvest, so there are two harvests—one before and another one after. They picked all of their grapes before the storms—a total for 6,500 bottles from 2020—so they picked with more acidity and less dilution. Furthermore, his wife Vicky was 100% with him in the vineyard, and they could do a lot more work. They now have a two-month-old daughter, Maya.