The Rare Wine Co. - Bernabeleva

Among Spain’s newest viticultural projects, Bodega Bernabeleva is generating a great deal of excitement because of its terroir: an isolated cool, high-altitude site of very old Garnacha. In just its fifth year, it is already producing wines of stunning Burgundian finesse, including three dazzling single-vineyard cuvées. Spain’s cool-climate guru, Raul Perez, leads this project which will help to change the course of winemaking in Spain.

With a modern highway nearing completion, San Martín de Valdeiglesias lies a mere 75 minutes from Madrid and its three million inhabitants. Yet, the journey feels much longer, both in distance and in time. As one drives west from the capital city, the terrain quickly becomes rugged and mountainous, the air cooler, and one begins to see signs of an earlier era.

Here, on the eastern edge of Spain’s Sierra de Gredos mountains, a renowned Madrid doctor named Vincente Alvarez-Villamil purchased land in 1923. The site, which at that time was

a full day’s travel from Madrid, spoke of its Celtic past, with ancient bears carved from boulders to mark forests dedicated to the hunt goddess.

The estate, which Vincente named Bernabeleva (“the bear’s forest”), held more than just an ancient history. It was, he believed, a special place to plant the noble Garnacha (Grenache), and a place whose wines might exhibit profound character.

But the next decade brought increased political instability to Spain, and the Civil War of 1936 devastated the country. Though the family held onto the land, Vincente’s dream of making wine ended... for the time being.

The Dream Lives On. In 2006, two of Vincente’s great-grandchildren, Juan Diez Bulnes and Santiago Matallana Bulnes, vowed to fulfill their ancestor’s dream. The estate’s vineyards were now eighty years old, and there were Garnacha vineyards to purchase from neighboring properties as well. Rejecting current fashions in Spanish wine, the cousins resolved to make wines of purity and expressiveness that were in harmony with the beauty of their ancestral land.

The cousins wanted, above all, to protect the unique personality of their estate, and they hired consultant Raúl Pérez, a master of cool-climate winemaking, to help them develop the project.

Just as important, they hired as full-time manager a young Catalan named Marc Isart Pinos. Marc’s devotion to demanding viticulture and to non-interventionist winemaking have served the cousins’ vision well.

Unlocking a Magical Terroir. While Bernabeleva’s assemblages are the essence of San Martín Garnacha, as a fitting counterpoint, starting in 2007, the bodega has produced glorious single-vineyard cuvées, each with an entirely unique—yet profound—character: Carril del Ray, Arroyo del Tórtolas, and Viña Bonita. These wines have unlocked some of the most remarkable terroirs in all of Spain.

Camino de Navaherreros — Fermented and raised in&nbps;large neutral wood, it is explosive and fresh.

Navaherreros — This wine is the essence of San Martín Garnacha. A selection of estate Garnacha aged in 2nd- and 3rd-passage oak barrels.

Carril del Rey — Eighty-year-old south-facing vineyard. Powerful wines, with dark aromas.

Arroyo del Tórtolas — North-facing vineyard at 800m elevation yields bright, intensely aromatic wines.

Viña Bonita — Shallow sand over granite produces meager yields and intense, complete wines.