Micrita Caliza...the Envínate's new project in collaboration with Casa Castillo winery

Once upon a time… there were monks, vineyards, Russian tsars, great Kings and Queens in Europe and another way to spent time, much more slowly...and these monks worked empirically for ages, studying each soil, each terroir...and those Kings and Popes were who gave the best reputation for some of those wines, almost all of them from France, but also from Jerez, Oporto, Madeira, Tokaj, Germany (sweet and fortified wines), because those wines could face the long trip from their origins to the destination.

Today "knowledge" has spread throughout the world in an inertia of globalization and unprecedented "real time."

This explosion of knowledge means today, more than ever, many new and wonderful things are being done, and others not so much.

To simplify, I will divide the world of wine into two large blocks, to focus later on the one that interests me: people who seek to express a vineyard, a landscape, the originality of a terroir, interpret a score ... and others who seek glamor, marketing and cool messages in Social Media.

In the second block we have the marketing directors, who could be great to sell cola or the latest or coolest energy drink and direct their message, designing an incredible bottle and label, to present the latest and great "Rosé", where attendees doubt when they try to choose what type of sunglasses they will fit best in the presentation cocktail "

I don't criticize that, just if it's what you like, you can say you're a fashion lover, but not a wine lover. Period.

The people of the first block, however, are serious people (although fun people, because they feel happy and fulfilled) who are doing great things and at more than affordable prices. Great news! We just need to criticize the politics (wrong in my opinion) of many restaurants, to be comfortable.

So, if we have people who do things well and are also not worried about the type of sunglasses they will wear, the restaurants just need to stop quadrupling the purchase price of their wines, without even having a good Sommelier at front, not even a "wine person". Many of them simply buy from the supplier that convinces them the most (without knowing what they buy) and multiply by three or four the purchase price, that’s all.

Less "half-price days" and more respect for wine, my friends. Less nonsense and more criteria ... but we will talk more about this another day. Today I will only tell you that I was working in a famous Steakhouse here, in Toronto and I did not endure more than three days there, sadly.

In a cultivated restaurant (it can be casual, cultivated does not mean expensive) wine can and should be half of the gastronomic experience. Bravo for the great restaurants in Ontario that DO it wonderfully, congratulations!

The importance of a sommelier in a fine restaurant is a HALF of the gastronomic experience; it is

his/her responsibility. Never before have there been so many interesting wines at affordable prices, the Sommelier just have to know how to find and choose the right projects and for that she/he do have to be a great lover of the world of wine and be well informed, in addition to having criteria(*).

(*) Criteria: read thousands of hours, travel and meet wineries, philosophies and authors thousands of days and taste thousands of wines ...but very very "thousands"...do you know what I mean? (Yes! Dollars also…)

Let me introduce you one of the latest small and very interesting projects from Spain, in the South East...where I have lived almost half a century.

MICRIT 2017

“Micrit is the name given to the very fine particles formed by the erosion of carbonated limestone rocks. These limestone rocks come by shedding of the mother rock of the mountains that surround the vineyard and its erosion corresponds to mechanical effects (tillage from the ground), atmospheric (wind and rain) or physical (by weathering). This degradation of limestone forms the ground where this vineyard sits”. It was time for, in a world where slate or granite, basalt or quartzite soils appear to be the perfection, someone defended, with the name of the project and the wine, the limestone soils, the base of regions as mythical as Burgundy or Rioja, which determine, supposedly, that elegant, pure and vibrant minerality that attracts us from our wine origins. 

Yes, we also have these soils in Jumilla. Jumilla was need of new projects, and the few that emerged, with the except for “Bruma”, they were of very little entity or route. Facing wine effervescence de Bullas, with a decade ahead of great importance, in which wineries must consolidate and develop qualitatively and commercially, in Jumilla the immobility, possibly due to the existence and strength of an important group of wineries industrial character, which, although some have succeeded in their segment, have not favored the revitalization of quality and concepts, so necessary in current times and as usual in other Spanish regions.

Micrita Caliza is a new project in Jumilla, the result of the collaboration of “Envínate” and Jose María Vicente, from “Casa Castillo”. His first wine is Micrit 2017 and has just been marketed in this first week of November 2019. 

For our small distributor is a pleasure and a challenge that you have trusted us for your exclusive distribution in Murcia and Alicante, while the rest of Spain will be occupied by Vila Viniteca. 

I remember perfectly 14-15 years ago, when Saturday mornings Roberto Santana and Alfonso Torrente came to buy me wines, to drink them methodically during that week with his friends Laura Ramos and José Martínez. They were studying Enology at the University of Alicante, in Orihuela.

They finished studying and Roberto worked at Casa Castillo in 2006, where he had done his internship. Alfonso spent some time in Calzadilla, forging the character of a great vigneron. And finally, Laura and José were the perfect complement, the gear for everything to work. 

So Envinate emerged, in times of crisis, challenging many pre-established concepts. In just 10 years Envinate are an unquestionable reference in the current panorama of the best Quality Spanish wine, they have developed their own, recognizable style, admired by critics and amateurs, and they are also able to elaborate in regions as different as the Canary Islands, Ribeira Sacra, Extremadura, Almansa and now Jumilla, and of course with many native varieties. 

Ten years ago, nobody believed that Envinate, four partners and logically four different characters, could hold together more than 2-3 years. Today, with the perspective of the passage of time, not only remain together, but also, and this is the most important, they have been able to create their own style, in line with the most advanced worldwide, where viticulture, terroir and variety are truly respected, to show a purity, tension and pleasure practically unknown in our country. Envinate is an idea, a desire, to realize what they felt and thought four good friends.

On the other hand, Jose María Vicente, has experienced in the last 4-5 years a meteoric evolution after more than 20 years of working his vineyard has managed to be with him in full tune, a virtually perfect synchronization. The vineyard offers him grapes extraordinary and he makes the best wines in the history of our land and our grapes. Nowadays wines such as Casa Castillo Cuvee N and Pie Franco, without losing their native character, they are world-class, at the height of the mythical wines of the world.

Sometimes the circle closes. We often do things and we don't find a connection between them, until a certain moment arrives, a magical moment, in which everything connects, and you find the meaning to months and years seemingly unconnected. 

The four of them Envinate studied in Orihuela and their reference were always Casa Castillo, they visited him, they traveled together to Burgundy and the Rhone, they did internships there, they worked, etc. After Roberto focused on the Canary Islands, Alfonso in Ribeira Sacra and Laura and José, in Almansa. Evidently Jumilla was missing, and the winery where they started, their reference.

Laura Ramos is from Santiago de la Ribera and has a good background, daughter of Paco Ramos, a rebel teacher of History who loves people and wine equally, and sister of Isio Ramos, an intelligent and extraordinary man, which has thousands of virtues, and immersed in the world of wine since 20 years ago he decided to devote himself in body and soul to the liquid element. 

Comes a moment in which Envinate wants to make a wine in Murcia, with Monastrell variety, and their only option is Casa Castillo and Jose María Vicente. And so, the circle closes. Once we understand why this wine exists, we lack its assessment, both objective as subjective. 

Objectively Micrit 2017 is a 100% Monastrell wine, from DO Jumilla, from a single vineyard, Camino El Viso, about 80 years old, a vineyard traditional free standing planted with “tresbolillo” and in dry land, with free soil sandy and covered with gravel. Its elaboration is traditional, covered in stone wineries underground, and part of the grape with whole clusters. The wine was refined for 17 months in 500-liter French oak neutral barrels. It was bottled in March 2019 without filtering. In total is 3,400 bottles.  

We are convinced that the choice of the vineyard has been a great success. Casa Castillo has enough vineyard to choose 2 hectares, or 22, to make a wine with its Envinate's friends. But this would not make sense, because there are already the different wines of Casa Castillo, and the objective logically was not to make a better or worse wine, but different, and that’s why a different vineyard was essential. An 80-year-old vineyard is a vineyard with great potential, with impressive future prospect.

It is true that a vineyard that has never been worked with an extremely demanding viticulture, as it happens now, you need an adaptation time and here you can see the expertise and experience of the new developers, it is practically impossible to make a first vintage of a new vineyard with this very high level of quality.

The second vintage, still in barrel and will be marketed in October 2020, will confirm the great scope and great character of this vineyard.

Another key issue when two large wineries such as Casa Castillo and Envìnate collaborate in a wine and is the distribution of tasks and the character of wine. This is not about a “By – For”, in which the “by” is who makes the wine and the “for” who chooses certain barrels for tag it with his name. At the present time this option would not make any sense. It is a collaboration between friends and for now it is more important to made together a wine that the economic part (like a joint venture). 

Both parties meet many times throughout the year, such as they have been tasting and drinking the best wines of the world since they met 14-15 years ago, and logically decide the viticulture to perform, which will then run to the millimeter expert farmers of Casa Castillo, and the winemaking and aging, which will also be carried out in the facilities of this winery.
 

Micrit is the interpretation of Envinate's Mediterranean wine, being essential in its elaboration the active participation of Casa Castillo. Both parties have the same responsibility in the existence of this wine. Micrit is a very original wine, of a style that there are hardly any Mediterranean wines. It is a serious and forceful wine, with no trace of greenery or overripe, dry and mineral, with a general feeling of lightness, fluidity, verticality, typical of the Envinate style.

When uncorking comes a pleasant alcoholic sensation that at 10-15 minutes by the glass disappears before the imminent arrival of hedonism, creamy tannins, appetizing red fruits and notes of low mount to refresh every drink. In summary, you start to taste it slowly and without haste, and end up drinking it at the speed of thunderbolt. Its authors are right to talk about tuning instead of aging in wood, since this, as it should be, neither shows nor marks the wine, but fulfills its function, rounding and coupling it, tuning the wine. The 14.5º of alcohol fulfill its function, initially it informed about the origin of the wine, and then without realizing it, they go to the background to end up disappearing. 30-40% of scrape in winemaking is used with so much mastery that does not transmit any green sensation, so common in other wines, but everything on the contrary, freshness and finesse as well as authenticity and some rusticity with class.

Micrit is complex, deep, elegant, intense, balanced, full ... like the great wines of the world. We have no doubt about its longevity, we can enjoy its evolution in bottle per month until 2030-2035. Distributing a wine from a single vineyard is difficult and complex, since production is usually be limited, and often much less than demand. We already have some experience in wines of this type, and we like to face these challenges. We have explained this project to you that whoever wants it can defend it from the beginning, and we can keep its quota year after year, regardless of external factors (such as the score of critics) who can trigger demand, but in no way supply. I like that the wineries feel that I am with them butt from the beginning, and I would like them to feel the same about everyone you.

You will uncork immediately, because to understand any wine, in addition to knowing its history, you have to drink it and enjoy it.

Salvador Lopez

salva@spaincultureandmore.ca

Sun, salt, life and light…SPAIN