OJUEL, between the old rockers and the young sommeliers

 

This is the reason why he is my best friend, my teacher, and my mentor.

 

The reason is twofold: deep knowledge and passion ... when those two things come together ... my friend appears ... and I appear (humbly).

 

I translate the last reflection of him, deep, intelligent, and passionate, as always. It is to read slowly, that is, at the real pace of things, not what we are used to today, gobbling up trash incessantly and with maximum speed and haste. No, it is the opposite, after each sentence, after each paragraph, there is a depth to reflect for a whole day.

 

He is talking about a winery that produces only 12,000 bottles, and whose prices range from Canadian $ 10 to $ 30 per bottle ... yet it seems he is talking about Romanée-Conti.

 

That is what I want to do in Okanagan ... that's why Okanagan is calling me intensely. That is what I know how to do and what I am passionate about doing.

 

I love this man.

 

I love wine world... the authentic wine world. It is a way of life itself.

 

 

OJUEL, between the old rockers and the young sommeliers

We like wine so much that sometimes we are not able to focus correctly on the wine objective.

In this tidal wave of continuous wine news and a pandemic-emotional crisis It is difficult to stop for a few minutes and think with a little calm. A few months ago, I read the comment of a good friend, and an excellent professional, in which he said about a good Rioja wine, probably from the 60-70s, that "the old rockers never die”, and I understood perfectly what he meant, but I am totally in disagreement.

Because old rockers like Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen keep fully operational, defending, as they have always done, their music, and are worthy of praise. However, all these wineries that for decades made wines extraordinary well done, died placidly and consciously from the 70's in the hands of the industrialization and economic profitability. Many of these wineries can say one or a thousand times that they have returned to tradition, to do what they had always done, but with a little historical memory and critical spirit, it is clear it is only the attempt to return to the elite and fashion through social networks and image. But there is nothing else, it's impossible, I don't know it can be in mass and ringing, they are incompatible business concepts.

Luckily for all of us, coinciding with the qualitative decline and the absolute industrialization of many classic wineries, emerged little by little, between 1980 and 2000, a group of wineries that today are the absolute reference in the region. It was one more group numerous, but during the last 20 years quite a few have diminished, at the same time incorporated some.

Artadi, Pujanza and Abel Mendoza, in addition to extraordinary friends, are for us the top 3 of Rioja today. From its origin, and without interruption until today, they live by and to transmit in each wine all the character and quality of their vineyards, being faithful to their work and ideals throughout their lives, not yielding one iota before the attractive mercantile and media swings. They are to be commended, but above all I believe that they should be the reference for all young winegrowers who are starting with their projects. No wine region in the world is really great if there is no renovation, if there is no emerging values ​​that arrive with new ideas and that, after having traveled many other regions and countries, return or settle with the sole objective of developing the best wines.

This symbiosis, between those who are and those who arrive, is called friendship, respect, and healthy competition, and sadly does not occur in many other Spanish regions. Men and women who will magnify Rioja from other perspectives, going back to the origins, work the forgotten vineyards, to try to conquer the world. They are a new very powerful generation, which will be a fundamental part of the history of La Rioja in the coming decades.

We are speaking, among others of Carlos López Lacalle, Diego Magaña, Roberto Olivan, Sandra Bravo, Miguel Martínez, Eduardo Eguren, Javier Sanpedro, Bárbara Palacios, Jose Gil….

Today I want to tell you about Ojuel and Miguel Martínez. And I imagine that for several reasons. Logically it should not be just because Miguel is a good example for all those small and young winegrowers who have recently started their projects, and who in a few years will be a fundamental part of the new times in La Rioja. Not even because Miguel has as wine references to Roberto Olivan, from Tentenublo, and Abel Mendoza, who I think a great success for a fruitful evolution from now on. Not for the high scores obtained in 2019 with Tim Atkin, including Revelation Winery and Best Sweet Wine. Everyone these reasons, which are important, are not decisive for me, and possibly I need something else, finding the character of the producer and the vineyards.

Miguel is a young, shy and sensitive man. You just have to be a little observant and spend a few minutes with him. He transmits humility and a desire to work and make wines with character. Nothing to do with many other winemakers who from the first second believe the kings of mambo and that they make the best wines in the world, and in reality they are simply unbearable.

Born in Sojuela (hence Ojuel), Miguel's parents were they went to live in Logroño, and in the summer in which he finished his studies, Miguel decided work on a project to recover the rural environment, rebuilding the semi-ruined wells of snow that were in the surroundings of Sojuela. There he understood that he wanted to dedicate himself to cultivate the vineyards, many of them already abandoned, that he had seen so many times since he was a boy.

There was a tradition of making wine in Sojuela, but since the 80-90s it was barely produced enough for people to survive, and the only option was to go to the city. He had a great challenge ahead of him, a small project that which was born exclusively because passionate about it, relegating other issues to the background (industry analysis, competition, viability…).

Since 2010, when at the age of 25 he decided to make his first Supurao, and in 2013, that he first made three barrels of red wine, has always had the support of his mother, Mila, who takes care of the administration. Today in Ojuel, his winery, Miguel Martínez produces a total of 12,000 bottles among 15 different wines.

If Laguardia or San Vicente de la Sonsierra are to the North of the region, and Sierra Cantabria separates them from the Basque Country, Sojuela is only 40-50 km away, but to the South, in the Sierra de Moncalvillo, and the Iberian System separates it from the Meseta (Plateau).

We have been for more than 20 years working with different wineries, which are in different towns at the foot of Sierra Cantabria, undoubtedly the area of ​​greatest prestige and quality, but we did not know the aspect opposite. In Sojuela there is a higher altitude, the climate is colder, and in terms of varieties, although there is a little tempranillo, the majority is maturana, mazuelo and garnacha. We want to highlight their Maturana Tinta wines, because they are made with clones de Maturana authentic or real, today despised by the D.O., which is the same variety that the merenzao in Galicia, the bastard in Portugal, or the trousseau in the Jura, which produces wines of little color, delicate, fine, and aromatic, and that in old vineyards, with clones practically disappeared, they produce wines of great character and quality.

It was introduced in Spain through the Camino de Santiago, and it has been cultivated for many centuries. However, the DO. In 2009 authorized the Maturana variety, but not the authentic one, but another variety, which has nothing to do with it, since it is related to cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon, which produces wines of excessive color, tannin and pyrazines, but with very little finesse, and that he called Maturana de Navarrete, whose origin is in 17 vines that a farmer brought in the early 2000s, from an indeterminate place and lineage from France.

Sadly the D.O. in 2009 he preferred to defend powerful and concentrated wines to fine and elegant ones, loading more than a century of history. A real botch as Víctor de la Serna already denounced at ELMundoVino in 2013.

All the vineyards are in the surroundings of Sojuela, and they tend to be bottled by separated to show the character of the different plots, although sometimes some are they intermingle, or even different wines can be made from the same plot. his agriculture is organic, using many preparations based on nettles, lavender and valerian, pruning and bottling according to the lunar and biodynamic calendar, with a very low footprint of carbon…, and, in short, without obsessions, the environment and the winemaking and aging process with minimal intervention.

All their wines have in common its labels, where some of the many species of butterflies are represented, of the area, where more than 70% of the species live and 50% of all the butterflies from Spain.

Marketing 12,000 bottles of 15 different wines is not easy, we have chosen to distribute in Murcia six wines, very different from each other, each one has its own story, and it is interesting to meet it.

Fuente León 2019 is one of the three white wines from Oxuel, made with 90% of white tempranillo and 10% white garnacha, from the La Tejera vineyard, 0.45 hectares at 800 meters high, planted in 2003 in a ferrous red clay soil. Leon Fountain is a fountain in the middle of Cañada Real Galiana, where sheep in transhumance stopped to drink before to begin the ascent towards the highlands of Soria. It is a fresh and clean wine, full of aromatic nuances, with hints of the fruits and flowers that mark this route of shepherds. Although we think that the white tempranillo does not reach the finesse and balance of the viura, perhaps more immediate, showing a more citric, greenish, jungle, minty, tropical, with nuances of grapefruit, spearmint ..., a very attractive wine in which the malolactic fermentation and has remained 6 months in stainless steel, stirring the lees twice a week, to find the right balance.

Granícula 2018 is a 100% Tempranillo made for the first time in 2018 as result of the complicated weather conditions, since during the summer there were several storms, and even, just before the start of the harvest, a great hailstorm, responsible for that in the same cluster there were rotten grains and healthy grains. Faced with this situation and taking as reference the extraordinary Grano a Grano elaborated by Abel Mendoza for more than 10 years, the grapes were selected using only those grains healthy, avoiding undesirable oxidation that would have adversely affected the quality of the final wine. A very slow and expensive task, essential to obtain a great wine in Sojuela in 2018. The vineyard is located 650 meters on a fresh, pebbled soil. The wine, which is aged for 6 months in barrels, is elegant, fine, and fresh. The production total is 500 bottles.

Salvaje 2 Maturana 2019. In Ojuel three Salvaje wines are made, of three varieties different (Garnacha, Maturana, and Tempranillo), and all of them have in common that, in addition to its organic viticulture, no type of additive or sulfur is added. Is what could be a good natural wine, but the terminology is sometimes so confusing that a a term as clear and powerful as Wild. At the foot of Cerro Cerrosojon there are several vineyards from different periods and varieties. One of those vines, of 0.6 hectares, was planted in the 40s, on a soil sandy, very fresh, and in addition to Maturana there are 11 other varieties, a real gem of the diversity. Some Maturana strains are chosen, which are harvested a little before the rest, to maintain freshness and acidity, and prevent the alcohol content from rising further. After six months in barrel, bottled in the spring of 2020, the wine has great character, a lot of energy, so much that it defines the wine much better than the individual analysis of its different parameters. A young wine of extraordinary quality, is it so difficult for us to understand that the quality of any wine is closely related to the quality of the grape?

Cerro Sojon 2016 is made with 60% Maturana and 40% mazuelo, from different and very small vineyards planted in glass between 1925 and 2005, of sand and song rolled, and relatively acidic. It is a wine with a marked Atlantic character, intense and deep, scented with plant species typical of Cerrosojon (scrubland, rockrose, resin, tulip, violet) A powerful and very mineral wine (notes of flint), tannic, even rustic, but refreshing by acidity. A great wine that evolves very well in the bottle, and undoubtedly we surprises. Only 1220 bottles of the extraordinary 2016 vintage are made.

La Espina 2016, 90% red garnacha and 10% white garnacha, is a tribute to the viticulture of the past. The vineyard, of 0.2 hectares at 700 meters of altitude, planted in 1930, on pebble ground and sand slabs, without access road, totally surrounded by holm oaks, holm oaks, thyme, lavender, sloe ..., a mountain landskype that today would not have meaning neither plant nor work. Once again, a very special, floral, balanced and refreshing wine, with very fine tannins, with notes of red cherry, citrus and pomegranates. And once again long journey, with very good evolution in the bottle (for this, the barrel aging was extended until January 18), but always maintaining that magical part, that difficult balance between the forcefulness and subtlety.

Supurao 2016 is a unique wine, which goes back in time to bring us closer to the aroma and the taste of the most artisan and delicate wine of the Riojan wine culture. It is the wine of winegrowers, which they kept for their own consumption and their celebrations. Sadly, this came It was disappearing over the years, drastically from the 70's with the industrialization of wineries, because it was simply unthinkable a wine whose final yield was only 18% while the usual in dry wines is 60-70%. After the harvest, the grape bunches (Tempranillo, Garnacha and Viura) were hung on the hangers, scaffold-like structures, with vertical and horizontal slats, in the chambers, rooms on the upper floors that were used to store food. After 3-4 months, well into winter, the partially dried bunches that have suppurating and concentrating the sugars, they are introduced into a vertical press, where obtains a very dense and aromatic juice, which ferments spontaneously in a very slow, stopping on its own, and leaving a significant amount of sugar in the wine finished. It is a naturally sweet wine. Its color is cherry red with a tile rim. Very subtle and complex nose, full of nuances to red and black fruits, flowers and wild herbs. On the palate it is liquorous and unctuous, but very balanced and pleasant, with rejuvenated notes of raisins, cherries, sour cherries ... Simply exquisite and unforgettable.

And finally, before proposing our offer, a brief reflection addressed to the esteemed young sommeliers. A good sommelier, regardless of biological age, must be emotionally young, that is, especially willing to pay attention and value, forgetting about prejudices, all those emerging projects that they still don't know about. And, of course we understand, how could it be otherwise, that every sommelier works and defends the wines that he deems appropriate.

However, my comment was a little further, to the commitment that all wine professionals must have, regardless of our individual tastes, to know and transmit, each according to his possibilities, the work and the wines of the new generations of winegrowers, who undoubtedly magnify the Spanish wine scene. And do not think that my approach is so innovative, it is simply what all wine professionals have been doing in France for the past 30-40 years where the little vignerons are so well known and respected like a great Bordeaux or Champagne cellar.

But this does not happen in Spain, unfortunately, and it is the explanation that I sell in my distributor 10 times more than a port or a basic sauternes than a Supurao. And this we have to change. I think it's good to talk now, you have to take action. I would like that know the Oxuel wines, how Miguel Martínez interprets the vineyards, the landscapes and the history of his town. They are not the best wines in the world, nor does he claim it, but they enrich our vision of La Rioja, Maturana, Supurao ..., besides being extremely pleasant to drink, they have great character and individuality. That is why we propose the six wines that we have chosen to distribute in Murcia.