Comando G, Cebreros, Gredos

A short distance from Madrid, the Sierra de Gredos seems like another world.

Steep mountains, large granite formations, scrubland, small villages and vineyards hidden in places where it's hard to imagine anyone decided to plant a vine.

For a long time, these wonderful wines were destined for the king's court. Their quality and location, just 80 kilometers from Madrid, were ideal for sending wines to the court. However, with the arrival of the railway at the end of the 19th century, the more abundant and cheaper wines from La Mancha displaced those from Gredos.

Then, as in so many other regions, the phylloxera plague devastated the vineyards, marking the decline of a millennial tradition. Many varieties disappeared, and replanting was hampered by a lack of resources and migration to the cities.

But Gredos held something special.

Among the mountains remained small plots of old vines, many of them in remote and difficult-to-work places, planted on poor granite, sand, slate, and quartz soils.

This is where the story of Comando G begins.

Daniel Landi and Fernando García knew each other from university and both ended up working around the Sierra de Gredos: Daniel at the family winery in Gredos, Jiménez-Landi, and Fernando at Bodega Marañones.

They shared a fascination for the mountain and for those small, ancient vineyards that survived almost hidden in the highest parts of the mountain range.

Over time they began to search, lease and buy some of the best plots they could find. In 2008 they created Comando G.

The “G”, of course, stands for Garnacha but also for Gredos and the Granite soils that are abundant in these mountains and give the wines their unique character.

And a good part of their work has consisted precisely in demonstrating how far this variety can go when cultivated in the right place and worked with sensitivity.

Another way of understanding Garnacha

For a long time, Garnacha had a reputation for being a grape destined to produce simple, ripe wines with a high alcohol content.

In Gredos, Daniel and Fernando found something very different.

Their vineyards are located approximately between 900 and 1,200 meters of altitude, with vines that in many cases are between 50 and 80 years old. The combination of altitude, sandy soils derived mainly from granite and quartz, good drainage and a surprisingly cool climate for central Spain allows for slow ripening.

The result are Garnachas that can be very pale in color, perfumed, fresh and delicate, but at the same time profoundly expressive.

They don't seek power. They seek precision, texture and place.

The vineyards are worked organically, incorporating biodynamic practices, and all harvesting is done by hand.

One of Comando G's most important ideas is to work each vineyard as an individual place. The plots are not simply a source of grapes. Each has a different orientation, altitude, soil and microclimate.

That is why some of their wines are bottled as Vinos de Parcela (Single Vineyard Wines). Tumba del Rey Moro, Rumbo al Norte and Las Umbrías, for example, are different expressions of Garnacha born from specific vineyards.

Rumbo al Norte can show more generous fruit and a more marked structure.

Las Umbrías tends to stand out for its balance, its floral and mineral character and an especially fine texture.

Tumba del Rey Moro offers another interpretation of the same variety and the same mountain.

Three Garnacha wines.

Three different places.

That is precisely what is interesting.

The work continues with the same philosophy once the grapes enter the winery. The harvest usually takes place in October. Fermentations are carried out with native yeasts from the grape and the environment, without resorting to commercial yeasts. For red wines, whole clusters are used and fermentations can take place in open French oak vats.

Then, depending on the wine and the plot, aging can be done in large barrels of 500 to 700 liters, foudres or even clay amphorae.

The idea is not to impose a winery style. It is to allow the difference between the vineyards to remain recognizable in the glass.

In the end, that is perhaps what interests us most about Comando G: they are not trying to prove that Garnacha can become something else.

They are showing what it can be when we let an old vineyard, a mountain and a variety speak for themselves.