Garagewine

Garagewine Cencibel

Name: Garagewine Cencibel
Brand: Garagewine
Price: 146.85 CAD
Availability: InStock

$48.95 CAD/btl $146.85 CAD/case $165.95 CAD/case Retail

9 pieces in stock

Notes

An expressive and surprising single-vineyard red made with 100% Tempranillo, locally known in La Mancha as Cencibel. This past season they produced 2400 individually numbered bottles.

This is another great example of Jesús and Julián's ability to create delicately nuanced wines from typically full-bodied varieties grown in the arid heart of La Mancha, central Spain. They achieve this by doing three separate harvests on different dates. Jesús and Julián decide which days to harvest the grapes by tasting them in the vineyard. On each separate harvest day the grapes vary in ripeness and this is what makes for a more balanced wine with good acidity, complexity, and body.

On the nose you get warm ripe summer fruit aromas, dry grass, and hints of sweet tobacco, the wine really smells of the land it comes from. In the mouth, it's smooth and balanced despite not having any oak ageing, a testament to the care and quality of the grapes.

The grapes come from a single vineyard, paraje "La Venta", planted in 1970. It sits at 635 meters of altitude in sandy-clay soils near Quintanar de la Orden, Toledo. The vineyards are strictly dry-farmed and cared for personally by Jesus, Julian, and their family and friends.

The wine doesn't touch any oak, and goes straight to the bottle after fermentation, giving it the purest expression of a young Cencibel in the terroir of La Mancha Toledana.

Their whole operation is manual, artisanal, with small productions and minimal intervention.

Garagewine's range includes eight varietal wines, all of which are also single-vineyard wines as shown on the labels, these include Brujidera, Tinto Velasco, Airen, Verdoncho, La Autóctona, Garnacha Tintorera, Cencibel, and La Forastera. However, Jesus and Julian have decided to cap their production once they reach 30,000 bottles total, since this project has always been about elevating their local varietals and not about money.

Facts

Annual Production: 2400 bottles (The club has access to 100 annually)
Type: Vino Tinto (red wine)
Body: Medium-Full
Palate: Dry
Finish: balanced and smooth
Grape Variety: 100% Cencibel (Tempranillo)
Viticulture / Farming: Traditional bush vines ("en vaso" in Spanish, "gobelet" in French), head pruning and dry farming.
ABV%: 13%
Ageing: Only ageing in the bottle
Winemaker: Jesús Toledo
Bodega: #garagewine (Toledo & Ajenjo)
Region: Castilla-La Mancha, La Mancha Toledana, Quintanar de la Orden
Designation of Origin (DOP): VT Castilla (IGP Vino de la Tierra)
Micro-Climate: The area of La Mancha Toledana has a dry climate all year round. With maximum temperatures between 33 and 37º C, and minimum temperatures between 0 and -5º C.
Elevation: 635 meters above sea level
Age of Vines: 53 years (Paraje La Venta, planted in 1970)
Soil: sandy clay

Tips

Drink now or keep for up to 5 years
No need to decant, simply open 15-20 minutes before consuming
Pairs well with pasta dishes, Manchego cheese (any hard cured cheeses), white and poultry meat, turkey, pheasant, Jamón Ibérico, paella and other rice dishes
Ideally served just below room temperature

Terroir

The wine region of Castilla-La Mancha is not only the largest in Spain, but also the largest in Europe. The vineyards of Castilla-La Mancha occupy an extension of 459,000 hectares (1,134,200 acres), which equates to almost 49% of Spain's total vineyards. For reference, that would cover a surface area equivalent to 65% of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

The Castilla-La Mancha region includes the provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo, and there are twenty Protected Designations of Origin (PDOs) and one IGP (PGI in English = Protected Geographical Indication).

Castilla-La Mancha occupies the central Iberian plateau, but also includes two important river valleys - most of the Tagus and half of the Guadiana - the corresponding mountain chains north, central and south of these valleys, crossing east to west, and the upper part of the smaller River Jucar on the east.

This extensive geography procures an enormous amount of terroirs, micro-climates and elevations.

Quintanar de la Orden's location is quite central in Castilla-La Mancha, and is in the north-western part of the DOP La Mancha, just about 130 Km south-east of Madrid capital.

La Mancha's extensive viticultural area spans over 154,000 hectares (380,500 acres) of vineyards across 182 municipalities and four provinces, including Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca and Toledo. To put this into perspective, Australia has just over 146,000 hectares of vineyard in total (2022 data).

In addition to being one of the largest wine regions in Spain, La Mancha also boasts a rich history in winemaking. The practice is believed to have originated in Roman times and was widespread during the Middle Ages. During the time of Moorish rule between the 8th and 15th centuries, the region was referred to as "al-mansha," meaning "parched earth," a nod to its arid countryside.

Garagewine's vineyards are located near and around Quintanar de la Orden, in the province of Toledo. The Brujidera vineyard sits at 629 meters of altitude and grows in clay-loam soils with a good cover of pebbles. The climate is very arid, the summers are short, hot, and mostly clear; the winters are cold and partly cloudy; and it is mostly dry year round. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 0 °C to 33 °C and is rarely below -5 °C or above 37 °C. Average rainfall of 2 litres per square meter and 2,800 hours of daily sunshine per year.

Vinification & Ageing

The Cencibel vines are hand harvested in 15kg crates on three separate dates with varying degrees of ripeness. The grape bunches are hand selected both in the vineyard and a second selection is made at the winery. The grapes are fully de-stemmed and the must macerates with the skins, both, prior to fermentation and also after fermentation. The alcoholic fermentation starts naturally triggered by their own indigenous yeasts and maintained at 25°C for about 10-12 days.

Manually pressed in a vertical press. The wine is then allowed to naturally settle through the malolactic fermentation, before manual bottling.

Winemaker

Cousins Jesús Toledo and Julián Ajenjo, are the creators of GarageWine and trailblazers in reviving ancient grape varieties. From these varieties, they create small-batch artisanal wines with a big focus on showing the uniqueness of each grape and their local terroir.

What started as a project in a garage has turned into a life-long mission. Since 2011 Jesús and Julián have recovered various forgotten native grape varieties, such as Brujidera, Verdoncho, Tinto Velasco and Pámpana Blanca, and are now part of a research and recovery program with IVICAM (Instituto de la Vid y del Vino de Castilla-La Mancha — Research Institute of Vines and Wine in Castilla-La Mancha). They are on track to revive other local varieties such as Albilla, Tinto Fragoso, Malvar and Moscatel Serrano.

Now, Jesús and Julián work out of their new micro-winery in Quintanar de la Orden, the small space still feels garage-like. Hand powered grape-presses and concrete fermentation eggs adorn the floor and give it a feeling of an artisan’s workshop; producing rare liquid art. Still, their operation is anything but unsophisticated; they have their own mini-lab to test wine samples which helps them further hone their craft.

Their vineyards are strictly dry-farmed, by choice, and their obsessive care over each vine for such a small yield at the end of the growing season is praiseworthy.

In their own words:

"As a small family winery, our goal is clear: to bring back the local or minority varietals in our region "La Mancha Toledana". We do this by performing microvinifications with minimal intervention and all in a completely handmade manner."

Their micro-winery is humble but all the wines they create in the little space they have are larger than life. Truly garage wines.

Ratings

Coming soon.