Originally published in miamigoelvino.com 11/08/2016.
It’s been a while now that I have an ongoing friendly argument with Jean Marcos (@larutadelvino1) about Grenache. He is a passionate lover of the Grenache produced in Madrid and its surroundings like the Sierra de Gredos. I prefer the more opulent Grenache produced in Aragon and especially in the Priorat. However, one vintage ago my friend Iñigo (@Dastagarri) helped me discover a small producer in Gredos who elaborates superb Grenache wines. I instantly fell in love with his wines. Orlando Lumbreras has two different proyects: his own one is Orly Lumbreras (@OrlandoLumbrera), where he makes two wonderful red wines: Punto G and Los besos que te robé, and other great red and white wines. The plot where the Punto G Grenache vines grow is located at 1100 mts. His other project is named RuBoR Viticultores (www.ruborviticultores.com), partnered with Rubén Díaz, (@RubenDiazVit). They elaborate red wines such as Groove and 7 Pulgadas and some whites as SADE, La Peguera (Albillo Real) and Chass (Chassellas Doré).
Good day, Orlando, and many thanks for your contribution. In the last times it has become trendy the wines of Sierra of Gredos in their two sheds, but mostly in the Madrid one. What has this area so special to make it so attractive?
Be careful with the term trendy; I would rather speak of discovery; and it is true that lately there is a lot of talk about the part facing Madrid, thanks especially to people like Fernando and Dani, of Comando G. But be aware with the Ávila side, for me it is much more untamed and with a wild temper. You ask me what this area has so special. I would say that has it all. To start, this breed of grape, Grenache, is unique, sensual, tremendously attractive, suggestive and very, very stylish. The area has magic, soul, passion, much to discover, strolling around you feel magnetism under your feet… I could be talking nonstop about everything you can find here, an emotion that is better to be felt and experienced rather than talked about.
Which characteristics have Orly Lumbreras wines?
Uffffff… I can say what I want them to convey, and that the people judge if we get it when they put it in the glass. We look for personality, character, the same we find in each vine. Each spot, each plot, is very different, they breathe, they feel and they convey way too different. And this uniqueness is what we seek in our wines. Wines of little extraction, elegant, passionate, long and above all, as I said, they speak about their environment, their space, the land and the climate that give them their peculiarity. It is true that in the white wines we seek complexity, that the earth talks, that they convey much more than freshness or fruitiness, and I believe that in these three years we are getting it going; This way at least we are beginning to be recognized, as the Albillos are the most personal and eclectic wines of the area. Singular, unique, white wines with so much character.
How does the Grenache and the white varieties behave in Gredos?
Grenache, the Albillo Real and also the Chasselas Doré (another white local breed) give you, multiplied by thousand, the love and the care you give them in the vineyard. This is to say that their behavior is the reflect of our organic, eco-friendly and committed-to-Mother-Earth work, giving us a healthy, fun, full of personality fruit, steeped in its skin and its pulp, carrying everything that has lived there for a year. For us it evolves in a wonderful way, very special; and in the winery there is little to do, beyond stepping on them the first days, pamper the fermentation and observe so that everything runs as it should run.
What you are looking for so that your wines show their character or personality?
As I commented before, we seek they express the personality of that vine where it is bred, where they arise, where they are growing to reach the time of the vintage. We look for feelings that express what they are. Eating the grapes during the Summer months, when it is close to harvest time, is feeling, imagining the way and the throb of each wine. We are looking for honesty. We don’t demand a grape that gives a wine that doesn’t carry its DNA printed. That would be to distort, deceive or manipulate. Our wines are honest in the sense that we are looking for that what you get on the glass is what you get from the vine.
Is there a big difference between a Grenache from Madrid slopes and on the side of Cebreros?
No and Yes. I think there is a big difference in each place, in each vine, in each plot. We have a plot in which arises Groove, impressive, sandy, that brings acidity and an incredible sensation of verticality. Something that we have not found in other parts of Cebreros, even in adjacent plots. Along Gredos, tracing the Alberche, we find very unique and different areas, from San Martín de Valdeiglesias or Rozas de Puerto Real, in the area of Madrid, to Navarrevisca or Navarredondilla, in the area of Ávila, passing by Cebreros or El Tiemblo. And within each area, the spots and plots are very different. A diversity that makes you fall in love, in truth.
Lately you are very active with a movement called Kolectivo Inkordia Wines (@Inkordiawines). Give us some info here, please.
Inkordia Wines is a group of friends who came together last year to attend Fenavin wine fair. We joined forces and gathered the few euros that we had to be able to attend a trade fair that we believed it was important for us and let us be known beyond our borders. In those four days of coexistence, 24 hours a day, a spark arisen, a “something” we said there was feeling between these people. And we decided to keep walking together, create a kolectivo to face adversity, fight by conveying our philosophy of life, our commitment to the countryside, our idea of vigneron or winegrower. Little by little we are growing, making more noise, making us visible, showing that there is life within life, beyond the large wineries. And that there is so much fighting, so much to fight and so much to shout for.
That’s where we are now, piano piano, wanting to spread our life, our wines, that we are known and recognized, and especially transmitting that without respect and commitment, we will kill the life on Earth, and that means we kill our lives.
What plans you have for the future? Age-worthy wines, perhaps?
The wines are to be drank, my friend, not to be saved. Producing 1000 bottles a year of our references, do you think I can come from keeps? The truth is that we do not have plans, we have dreams. And we daydream each day, every day, because if there is something that gives you the nature, the soil, you have so much calm that allows you to dream while you are working.
Coming back to Earth, not freaking out, I will tell you that one of the projects I’m more involved and more bundled is a space that are going to generate in Madrid called Taberna Inkordia, a place, we hope, revolutionary, where the wines will be accessible to the public in Madrid coming directly from some of the wineries of the Kolectivo Inkordia Wines, and a place from where you can chat directly with the people telling them about how we feel, our truth, our daily struggle. A dream that very soon will be a reality. In a few weeks we will start launching news about this.
To wrap up this conversation, Orly, what do you drink when you are not drinking your own wines?
I drink the wine of my friends; in this country there are many people making great wines, great wines. And that’s what I drink on a daily basis. You’re going to forgive me for not giving you names, because we would have to fill pages with the names of the people who are working in this country for real. Passionate people who are leaving their souls and hearts in the vineyards and in the winery. It would be unfair to say three, four names, and let other dozens of people without name. Authentic, honest wines that whisper me the life of people, those are the wines I drink every day.
Thank you, Orly, and may your dreams come true.
