Moravia, Bobal & Albillo Real, Vino Tinto 2021

Three partly rare varieties from an old field blend come together here in a wine with a character all its own: dark and fragrant at once, a bright, slightly translucent purple in the glass. The nose brings together fermented cardamom and rock dust with cool plum, backed by leather and ink.

The grapes grow on a plot roughly 100 years old, at 1,100 metres altitude. The soil is granite with a sandy topsoil, the rock typical of the Sierra de Gredos. Bodegas Jiménez-Landi is based in Méntrida, where José Jiménez-Landi runs his grandparents' estate, which he took over in 2004 together with his cousin Daniel.

Moravia has become rare: in 2016 only 222 hectares were still recorded, with a strongly declining trend; the variety tends to give lighter-coloured, fruity and fragrant red wines. Bobal originally comes from the Valencia region and its coast, ripens late, withstands drought and yields dark, rustic wines. Albillo Real is a very old white variety native to the area around Madrid. Fermentation was spontaneous in French foudres, with ageing in used barriques. The wine was bottled unfined, unfiltered and only minimally sulphured.

Juicy and earthy, sinewy and lightly austere, yet gentle. A very clear, fresh acidity holds the wine together, which stays firm and grippy and shows very good length. Dry, 14.5% vol.

Since the stylistic shift of 2007, the winery has worked without extraction and without new barriques: spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts, large used casks and concrete tanks, minimal intervention. This wine from the Vinos Singulares range shows what this approach draws from a single old plot.