Spanish & Portuguese Wine News: World Class Grenache from Jimenez-Landi

By: Joe Manekin | K&L Spanish & Portuguese Wine Buyer

Hi all,

Some pretty amazing garnacha based wines are coming from the D.O. of Mentrida, just outside of Toledo, Spain. While it may not be garnacha weather for some of you, for anyone in SF and in the cooler coastal areas most evenings are fair game for these surprisingly elegant wines.  And, for the rest of you, these wines are so good that you might just want to claim a few before cooler Fall weather arrives; I seriously doubt we willl have any of these left by then.

Daniel Gomez Jímenez-Landi studied winemaking at university in Madrid, and he has quickly become, along with the likes of Marc Isart (Bernabeleva, see other K&L garnacha emails), one of the hottest young Spanish winemakers out there.  Together they are proving that high end Spanish wines need not be: 1.) Traditional, long established Rioja 2.) Heavily marketed, carefully concocted soulless corporate juice or 3.) Over priced, overripe cult wine from Rioja, Ribera del Duero or Priorat. 

Rather, Jimenez-Landi makes wines that he wants to drink.  And, judging by these wines, I would imagine that he wants to drink good Burgundy, traditional Barolo, cru Beaujolais, Loire red, etc.  In other words, not the usual Spanish references for world class wine, and in turn these are not your usual high end Spanish wines.  They have great acidity and finesse, tons of character, and are made with some techniques more commonly found across the border in France:  whole cluster fermentations, long, cool macerations, a purposeful reduction in the use of sulphur in the cellar, ageing in more neutral, larger wood.  These are some of Spain's best wines right now, and in my opinion easily join the ranks of our very best grenache based wines in the store.

2009 Jimenez-Landi "Pielago" Garnacha Mentrida - $34.99

http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1107179

2009 Jimenez-Landi "Cantos del Diablo" Garnacha Mentrida - $69.99

http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1107184

2009 Jimenez-Landi "El Reventon" Garnacha vino de la tierra de Castilla y Leon - $69.99

http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1107183

Un saludo,

Joe

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Joe Manekin

Spanish, Portuguese, Latin American Wine Buyer

K&L Wine Merchants

Ph: 877.559.4637 ext. 2748

joemanekin@klwines.com