CA’ di MAT VALAUTIN GARNACHA 2021

This exquisite juice was sourced from hand-grown bush vines at a high elevation of 800-850 metres. A gentle basket press and stainless steel fermentation adding to the wine's feminine traits. Ca´ di Mat are also unusual for their "unforced" yields, which allow for larger grapes and a lighter colour despite extended maceration. Best drunk slightly cooled in the summer, this is a real X factor wine. From a fabulous vintage, the Valautin Garnacha is exceptional value.

Curro Bareño and Jesus Olivares are the duo behind a number of ground-breaking Spanish projects. They are now bringing their vision and expertise to San Martin de Valdeiglesias in the Sierra de Gredos mountains of central Spain, where they started their careers. Ca’ di Mat (literally, “House of Fools” or “Mad house” in Piedmontese) is their new project, a collaboration between them and long-time friends (An Italian winemaker and his wife who is from the area). The climate here is totally continental, with healthy rainfall and cold winds. Their old vine Garnacha (Grenache) is bush grown on granite soils, and sits at around 800–850 meters high. The ruggedness of the terrain, the austerity of the climate and the age of the vines mean it is extremely hard to cultivate the grapes and make wine. There are no large scale operations here. But this combination also allows the “fools” of Ca’ di Mat to realize their ideal wine: fluid, delicate, and open.

Their reds owe their surprisingly light colour to the work in their organically raised vines. Curro and Jesus prune lightly, and encourage high productivity, nothing here is forced. Winemaking is non-intrusive, with spontaneous natural fermentations in concrete. It is hard to believe that these pale reds undergo such long maceration periods—up to ninety days sometimes—but their work is so delicate, the grapes are foot-trodden softly and the must separated by hand from the skins and stems, that the heat and power of Garnacha give way to a subtly aromatic and fruity juice. Élèvage is as neutral as possible, whole bunches in concrete tanks, and mostly-used French oak. All the wines are also Vegan certified. As Jancis Robinson puts it, “old vines, minuscule yields and local slate and schist are resulting in particularly fine, transparent, delicate wines that are almost Burgundian.”

93+/100 Luis Gutierrez, RobertParker.com, Wine Advocate, June 2023 (2021 Vintage)
"The red 2021 Valautín Garnacha is a village wine from San Martín de Valdeiglesias, as they used grapes from many small plots of old vines. It's not a shy or light wine at 15.1% alcohol, but it has good freshness and acidity. The full clusters fermented with indigenous yeasts and had three months of maceration, followed by malolactic in old foudres and 10 months of élevage in a 10,500-liter French oak foudre. The wine is super aromatic, floral, elegant and perfumed, and the medium-bodied palate has a lot of grip, with the chalkiness and dry sensation from the granite soils and a very tasty, almost salty finish. The oak is imperceptible, the extraction is moderate and the wine is elegant but with grip. 2021 was a great vintage for them. 14,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2022." Drink 2023 – 2027