The Lugo winery of Pazo de La Cuesta, the oldest family winery in Galicia, located in San Clodio de Ribas de Sil, has just launched its most special wine: a 100% red Garnacha planted on ungrafted vines from pre-phylloxera vines dating back to 1860.
It is a limited edition of 1,400 numbered bottles and represents the continuity of the history and value of the great-great-grandfather of the current owner, Manuel Bellod Álvarez de Lorenzana, who imported the vines from Bordeaux in the 19th century. “Of all the Pazo de La Cuesta project, recovering this wine was one of the things I was most excited about. It is a privilege and, of course, a great responsibility. In the 19th century, it was marketed under the brand Château La Côte and was known as ‘The Spanish Bordeaux’. This new reference is an asset for the winery, but, above all, for the Galician and Spanish wine scene”, said the owner of Pazo de La Cuesta, Manuel Álvarez de Lorenzana.
At Pazo de La Cuesta, there are still two micro-plots of 4,000 and 2,000 square meters, on the banks of the Sil River, of this prized variety, once imported from France. “Garnacha tintorera has good resistance to powdery mildew. That is why many Galician winegrowers decided to import it at the time and built their vineyards from this biological material. We plan to start a research project with the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) this spring to document and analyze in detail each of the vines that have reached our days”, explained the general manager of Pazo de La Cuesta, Jesús Álvarez.
This new wine is another step forward in continuing the legacy of Manuel Batanero de Montenegro, a true pioneer and driving force behind the relaunch of the Pazo de La Cuesta winemaking project in the 19th century. “This Garnacha Tintorera is the most beautiful way to connect the glorious past of the pazo with the modernity, innovation, and restoration of the current project,” revealed the owner of Pazo de La Cuesta.
The bottle design of this new Pazo de La Cuesta Garnacha Tintorera also has a lot of symbolism and meaning, as it shows the coat of arms on the main facade of the estate, representing the Batanero de Montenegro and Florez de Losada y Quiroga families. It is the same coat of arms that was used on the 19th-century labels of the Château La Côte wine.
Garnacha Tintorera is a variety classified as “authorized” within the Ribeira Sacra Designation of Origin. Therefore, this new reference is located outside the scope of the Designation of Origin. “It is a wine with varietal identity, versatile, that preserves the freshness of the terroir and continues its maturation in the bottle. The first edition is limited as the next one will depend on weather conditions. Our idea is to capture the essence of this historic vineyard as clearly as possible, with an exquisite and minimally interventionist winemaking process. We want it to be a wine for cellaring, with a very positive evolution in the bottle and, to this end, we are going to ensure that it is only released in exceptional vintages”, Jesús Álvarez said.
The new Garnacha Tintorera, bottled in July 2023, is harvested by hand with fruit selection in the vineyard. After alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, it is aged for eight months in French oak barrels: one 500-liter and two 300-liter medium toast barrels.
Since 2020, Pazo de La Cuesta, located in Ribas de Sil, has been immersed in a renovation and recovery project of its historic vineyard and the restoration of the primitive 16th-century winery. The oldest family winery in Galicia has belonged to the same family since its foundation and it has been Manuel Bellod Álvarez de Lorenzana, who is part of the fourteenth generation, the one in charge of starting this initiative assuming the commitment to return the prestige of yesteryear to the pazo, its vineyard and its wines.
