Casa Castillo Pie Franco 2017 - 99 red balloons...

Context: I wrote this more than ten years ago ... it would be in 2008 or earlier ... and at that time the "Numanthia" styles still came together, to understand us ... super-concentrated wines "made to win contests", but that you were tired of the first cup ... in those years that "began shyly to change" ...

I find it curious to recover it now, just now that the PIE FRANCO 2017 has already won 99 Parker points ...

Read it, if you like, considering the context of when it was written ...

           Follow the leader ... in the Spanish Levante (South-east) there is an absolute boss.

First of all I will be ashamed to say that, liking wine very much and having already traveled half of Europe, I had not yet paid a visit to my neighbor and friend José María Vicente, having it fifty kilometers away. It is to blush, but maybe things happen when they have to happen ... we'll see.

The estate of about four hundred hectares (forty percent of them from vineyards) with its cellar at the fall of the hillside is to remove the hiccups ... yes, we have a "chateau" in Jumilla (which this pisses off the anti-French a lot ), in appearance and, why not say it, in philosophy as well.

Its eight hectares of “Pie Franco”, old and in slow agony, make up one of those estates that should be defended by the penal code and drop the hair of the producer who had the stupid daring to start such a vineyard (we have close examples and for anywhere from that aberration).

For the ones less initiated, the previous paragraph still sounds blunt and compromised, but it would remain in mere demagogy comfortable and free if I did not extend a little more in the matter, for a simple reason, usually wine enthusiasts who write things, even the "professional" critics (I love using quotes, they play a lot of ironic play) we let go of our sentences forgetting our position: we are seeing the bulls from the barrier, the one who bullfights the bull is another, in this case the master José María Vicente; We criticize the player who misses a goal comfortably sitting with our bellies and smoking a good cigar ... long life the sport!

As it turns out that the market presses and presses very strongly and that “market” in a broad sense is all: critics and opinion-generating guides (with their blissful punctuations), amateurs and consumers, distributors (with their diverse and often antagonistic policies), etcetera ... and that same market is getting characters like José María do not talk about their Pie Franco with enough enthusiasm, with the forcefulness and even vehemence that this vineyard jewel deserves, beyond profitability or number of bottles (ridiculously low in this case, those vines will be around an average of one hundred grams of grape and they die inexorably every year a few). The "profitability" of such a vineyard should be measured in prestige, in pride of a great product, in ... yes, I will say fuck, in Love.

What is inconsistent in all this for me? Well, that the production of Pie Franco is not, every vintage, a hard-to-get wine, that does not disappear at great speed as soon as it is put on the market, that we do not have all the fans to get some bottles, because it is about a farm that speaks for itself, that has a formidable intrinsic quality and that, on top of that, expresses with each vintage the evolution of its producer that turns out to be better and better until reaching 2006 with a world-class wine.

So if we talk about “criminal offense” to us as amateurs, we should also drop some jail for being swallowing and raising the shameful wine to glory, letting ourselves be led many times by some guide of doubtful “commercial” reputation and little or no good taste and not defending with enough forcefulness to true quality.

He is not the only producer living this unfortunate situation, others see as some of his wines made almost exclusively for "tastings and contests", of those who tire you and saturate with the first glass, they will retire to other authentic, balanced wines, elegant and very true (Regina Vides versus Pago Santa Cruz GR, for example).

 
As I have already relieved myself a little, I will stop here if I do not get hot and then I regret the writing.

I was very happy to see how José María is brutally focused on the vineyard, like the great and really good ones. He is a man who, although young, has not stopped traveling for years, knowing first-hand the best producers in the world, his philosophies, his work in the vineyard, his methods in the cellar and, added to this, without stopping tasting wines from everywhere, with a rabid innate curiosity that I think in their case is caused by their profession and their hobby (he is as a good fan as a wine producer). That said it seems the most logical thing in the world, right? Well it should be, but it isn't, tell me a single producer of our area to do that, only one, and even at the national level there are very few producers with these concerns, very few (curiously the best for me). It turns out that all this costs a lot of time and a lot of money and also requires a humble attitude, open to the world and not the classic posture of a winemaker who has never left his corner and also believes that he does the most superb of the universe.

For owning one of the best Jumilla farms, but above all for what I said in the previous paragraph, I believe José María is the best producer of all the East and also with much difference over the rest.

With the Monastrell as protagonist, he also focuses on Syrah, Garnacha and Cabernet, millimetrically choosing each soil, each clone, each type of vineyard driving in search of giving the maximum in each of the wines of its complete and very well defined range of wines. A fineness with a certain tension of more clayey soils, the mineral depth of its spectacular gravel farms, the choice of clones and, according to the case, less vigorous and productive, the conduction that rationalizes the work in the vineyard, perhaps looking for (or I hope so) regulate the excess of sun and heat, which we have in abundance in our area, doubling the density of plantation as soon as it can do it, eliminating varieties that cannot work well in Jumilla ...

I repeat that in the vineyard, listening to José María is spectacular, he is made a high level winegrower and also likes it. Here I began to see the emotion that I missed in the old vineyard of Pie Franco, but that we will return all fans buying, drinking, praising and getting excited as soon as we read this article, right?

We must raise that vineyard to the place it should occupy because it is almost miraculous to get that level at this latitude.

As for winemaking, winemaking style, what the producer wants to convey in his wine or how he interprets his terroir (which Casa Castillo has, has terroirs, the vast majority does not, period), I am going to give my opinion , making it clear that it is just that, an opinion and that on this issue, we may not agree.

Recently in a well-known wine forum (mundovino) I reflected an observation to a comment by Luis Gutierrez, very graphic and short:

Luis Gutierrez: Pie Franco 2006, in two words IM PRESSIVE.

Salva: I agree with the description of the PIE FRANCO 06.
José María has taken a brutal turn to his Pie Franco in this last vintage, although that change already began to be noticed in 05.

I always liked the Pie Franco, but I must admit that, making a somewhat daring comparison, as much as the Rousseau of "before."

Following that parallelism, those of "today" are infinitely sharper, cleaner and fresher, without having lost an apparity of depth and complexity as usual (but "oddities" more or less strange and praiseworthy from a certain romanticism).

I believe that Jose María Vicente is very focused and is already looking for us and will provide us with unforgettable wines. Try your "Ceron 06" or think about whether or not Monastrell 06 was unbeatable in your segment.

I dare to say that Casa Castillo is one of the best wineries in the entire Southeast, but the best.

Luis Gutierrez: Completely agree, friend.

I'm going to get into a little mess, to see what comes out. I like wine so much that sometimes I hear things that excite me a bit. I guess it will sound like a buzzer, but it is like that and I liked it a lot (but a very lot) listening to José María talk about “fluency” when we tasted his wines.

Nowadays, although the trend begins more or less timidly to change, those “contest and tasting” wines that saturate, super concentrated, with excesses and imbalance are still being made everywhere and that, in addition to getting tired of the second glass and not serve to eat with them, they sink to the first exchange (be careful with saving those wines), not to mention lack of complexity and a thousand other things. Listening to a Jumilla producer, the quintessentially warm Mediterranean wine, talking about fluency almost gave me an erection (mental, don't be badly thought).

José María, as I said before, has tasted a lot of wines from around the world, many styles, many personalities and different cuts. What I am not clear about is whether that has endeavored to forge a clear and defined criterion. When we taste things and listen to him, he sometimes defends completely antagonistic criteria and does it equally and with the same firmness. If that is because he likes both, but aware of his antagonism, perfect ... why not enjoy a classic and modern cut equally? But if he is not so clear, in my opinion it would be a problem to solve as soon as possible. Juan Carlos López Lacalle, from Artadi, defends the “seriousness of thin wines” and does so with an enormous clarity of ideas; try it in El Sequé and he achieves it bluntly with his Pagos Viejos and, above all, El Pisón in La Rioja.

When José María speaks of fluency, I am not sure in which exact direction he says it, if it is to achieve a kindness and accessibility of the wine "only" (in quotes because that would already be great news in this climate and, above all, in the predominant styles in the crazy and schizophrenic market today) or if he wants to go further and that fluidity be the prelude to glory: elegance, balance, well-understood thinness, not excesses, finesse ... I think all these adjectives lead wine to the highest quality, namely even aging with nobility and magnifying the complexity that these vineyards are capable of giving us.

At the moment and to “make mouth” its barrels are large (500 liters) and begins to play with not always or all the time new oak, but also second or third year, etc ...

In any case, Casa Castillo has a range of wines in which it can express everything, the immediacy demanded by the current market, raising a bit the elegance of its most modern wines based on that “fluidity” that comments and has other wines in the which can aim very high, seeking to cross borders and getting world-class wines, oblivious to pressures of "immediacy."

I imagine that it is an excessively romantic vision, which I cannot avoid because for me it is the best winery in many kilometers, with enormous potential and only that exact “definition” of what he wants to do is missing, the path he wants to take, that in the case of being the one that I point to, has a magnificent example to follow in Domaine Gauby, of Roussillón (I think it and many more people, like the RVF that defines that winery as the undisputed reference for all Mediterranean wine).
In any case, this is only an option, a vision from the outside that is complex to materialize, because it requires making perhaps radical decisions in almost everything, from the vineyard and the winemaking to the distribution. It is a profound decision, of philosophy and of which one must be fully convinced before even considering it.

In summary, Casa Castillo is for me today the best winery in the East, one of the best in Spain and with the potential to, according to the path chosen by José María Vicente, be an undisputed world-class winery in a truly difficult area (it almost takes a miracle) to get this.

Whatever you do I don't think you will ever have a real competition in Jumilla (with respect to others, but I think José María is much better than the rest). We just need to know what José Mª's ambition is, how he wants his wines to be, in which markets he wants to compete and what heights of true quality he wants to achieve, because vineyard quality and cushions are enough to get anywhere.

Friend José Mª, choose the path you choose, here you have a good friend, who is still “erect” and very aware of where your comment on “fluency” will go, because even in the “worst case” for me and my vision (let's not fool ourselves, anti-profitable) is very pleasant news.

Do not ask me for responsibilities later if you do not reach the end of the month.

99 red balloons

The sham of authentic winemaking

Certainly, sometimes the "speech" is very weak ... everything that today is considered traditional, even "classic", one day was revolutionary.

Very interesting article (try the link below)...especially nowadays that everyone is making "bottled landscapes"

The sham of authentic winemaking 

It is rightly called into question, in my opinion, the concept of "authenticity" ... I would prefer to speak of "honesty", understood as the act of making the best possible wine according to what you know and can do, knowing that you know little and never considering "market" criteria, but what you think is the best possible wine.

With the utmost respect for Telmo, for me it represents a bit of an already outdated concept of "flying winemaker": a little art, a little ego, a little genius, a little commercial... by the way, I have never tasted a Telmo's wine who evolves well...

What is the "authentic" Barolo today? Is Elio Altare still a "revolutionary"? Are there still two big "Traditional versus Modern" blocks in Barolo?

Old and New World? In the photograph, "authentic" wines appear?

Moral: I'm sure you've heard more than once an industrial manufacturer that manufactures huge quantities, talk about crafts, handmade and romanticism like that ... coherent?