Verum

Verum
The world of wine is fabulous: the connections, the people, the landscapes. When I met Elias Lopez during the welcome dinner of the last MW symposium at Logroño´s Plaza de Toros we had a lot to talk about. He told me about his project to combat climate change by planting traditional grapes in the hillsides of his region of Castilla La Mancha in central Spain. After that, news came trickling out from wine writer friends in Spain and abroad that these wines were truly exceptional; I had to try them.

I have to admit, these wines are one of the biggest vinous surprises I have ever had. Firstly, because the wines come from La Mancha, home to windmills and Don Quixote and lots of cheap white wine made from the Airen grape used to distill Spanish brandy or alcohol. Secondly La Mancha is dry and hot; and always has been, long before climate change. Castilla-La Mancha stretches over a large plateau south-east of Madrid. There are about 20 denominations but by far the largest is La Mancha, covering 164,500 hectares at a high elevation of 700 m; (La Mancha makes up almost half the entire Spanish vineyards. ) This elevation is important because it creates a great difference between day and night temperatures (sometimes as much as 18°C). The growing number of new, young, organic, truly innovative producers here, prefer to use a more general appellation, such as Vino de la Tierra, for their wines than La Mancha.

The Bodegas Verum is owned by the historic Lopez family who own the well-known Altosa distillery that has been growing grapes and making brandy since 1788 in Tomelloso in the heart of the region. Four siblings, Elías, Belén, Juan Antonio and Pedro José, who own the estate were convinced of the quality that the old vineyards inherited from their grandparents and parents were worthy of resurrection. The project is spearheaded by Elias who had good experience in South Africa and Ribera del Duero before he began making his own wines in 2005. At the age of 41, he already has 26 harvests under his belt.

Elias decided to work with either later ripening grapes which would miss the summer heatwave or ones that needed very little water and created the project ULTERIOR in 2007 as a travel back in time, recovering legacy grape varieties so as to prepare the future of quality wines in La Mancha. At the end of the past century, a research team from IVICAM (Castile-La Mancha institute for the grape and wine), searched the region in order to create a catalogue of near extinct endemic grape types. Some of those varieties were planted in small experimental plots to study the resulting wine.

Bodegas Verum decided to plant the historical El Romeral estate with these grapes and also introduce other Spanish grape varieties, taking into account qualities such as the pH and adaptability to the terroir. As an ancestral witness of the land, there is one of the largest remaining “bombos », an interesting hundred-year-old landmark building, typical to Tomelloso that served to protect farmers, animals and work tools on the land.

The name Ulterior describes something which is further away from a place or land and represents the realization of a forward-looking project, a way of anticipating climate change using adaptable varieties which produce wines that are able of communicating the philosophy, the terroir and the family origins. The vineyards demand unending work: sowing of the vegetation cover in January, pruning time in February and March. At the end of April when the vines are sprouting, the vegetation cover is assimilated in the ground. At the end of May, the vines are trimmed and mid-July just before veraison, green harvest. From mid august to mid October, it is the harvest of the different varieties. By November, organic fertilizer is spread on the different parcels

The vines are grown organically and produce incredibly fresh, compelling and delicious flavours. Revitalised indigenous varieties such as Albillo Real, Tinto Velasco or Moravia Agria have been planted here along with other national varieties such as Graciano, Mazuelo or Malvasía.

The wines are made in a very intriguing traditional way. Elias uses 80-year-old large clay jars called tinajas that his grandfather used to make his wines and brandies which are beautifully preserved; here the clay interacts with the wine to provide a fresh saltiness or minerality. Very research minded, Elias is looking at ways to extend the grapes’ growing season and, in the winery, experimenting with square oak barrels that are easy to stack and store where the pores in the oak are not squeezed and compressed so that they give a gentler aging to the wines that need it.

As to the wines, the white Albillo Real is a fabulous, fragrant, floral example. With the red wines we encounter a gorgeously delicate Garnacha, bursting with character from whole grape fermentation; the rare Tinto Velasco which here is smooth, subtle and smokey; a rich, velvety Graciano with a hint of oak which is almost Burgundian in style and a Mazuelo, aged in new oak with sweet, floral, juicy notes that lingers on the palate. It is these wines that has got the wine world buzzing about Verum and although they make other good blends of wines, these wines are magical (and dare I say it, super values for the genius behind them). I urge those of you who want to keep in touch with the key movements in the wine world to taste these delicious wines. To best appreciate the elegance and subtlety of these wines, I would serve them quite fresh (12°-14°C) and let them warm up in the glass.

Fiona Morrison MW
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