Garciarévalo
(gahr-see-ah-reh-vah-loh) | Rueda – Castilla y León
Garciarévalo is a family-owned winery established in 1991…
in the town of Matapozuelos, in the heart of the Rueda wine region in Castilla y León. The winery was founded by Jose Antonio Arévalo and Benicio Garcia, who understood they had something extraordinary in their centenary vineyards of indigenous verdejo, which had always been famous for giving the best grapes in the Rueda appellation.
The current generation is a young, vibrant team led by Antonio and Manuela Arévalo; Rodrigo Arévalo is in charge of viticulture and vineyard management and Reyes Martínez Sagarra is the oenologist and winemaker. Garciarevalo is truly a tight-knit, family winery producing some of the most vibrant white wines in Spain while breathing economic life into their small village of one thousand inhabitants. Antonio Arévalo originally studied economics, as his parents encouraged him to work in anything other than rural agriculture. Yet, like his parents, he too felt the deep commitment to his family village and connection to the historic vineyards, joining the family winery in 1995.
Garciarévalo specializes in old-vine verdejo, with minor plantings of viura. While many newcomers to the region planted the trendy sauvignon blanc (which is ill-suited to the climate), Garciarévalo has always protected and exalted their indigenous verdejo variety. Their estate vineyards consist primarily of vines of over 100 years old, including a plot of pre-phylloxera verdejo vines over 130 years old, all planted in the traditional bush-vine system.
The site for their Tres Olmos verdejo is situated…
in the confluence of the rivers Adaja and Eresma, which produces an exceptional microclimate characterized by temperatures up to five degrees cooler than other surrounding areas. This zone also offers a big climatic difference between the day and the nighttime temperatures, which is key for retaining acidity. Far from the arid conditions one expects in Castilla y León, their elevation at 730m and location within a pine forest, between two rivers, provides an ideal microclimate for producing beautiful, fresh verdejo.
The unique qualities of the over 130-year-old Tres Olmos site are also evident in the soils, which differ from most other areas of Rueda. The soil here is extremely sandy and low in organic material, allowing for excellent drainage and a greater difference between day and night temperatures due to sand’s quality of quickly releasing heat at night. These factors allow their wines to be ripe, yet incredibly fresh, with exceptional acidity for the warm Rueda region. It has also aided them in their conversion to completely organic viticulture, for which they will be certified in 2020. As one depends on the other, their organic farming has enabled them to encourage their native yeast colonies in the vineyard, with the goal of adding complexity to their fermentations.
Another factor in the high quality of Garciarévalo wines is the superior clonal diversity found in their old bush-trained vines. The leaves on the old clones are much smaller, and the bunches are tighter and more compact with a distinctly darker green color than what is found in modern clones. This is the old, pre-industrial verdejo with thicker skins, which yields wines of character and quality. They only use these ancestral clones when replanting new vineyards. Garciarévalo continues to improve with each vintage and leads the Rueda region in a fresh, qualitative direction.
Most of all, Garciarévalo is making wines of substance that make people happy, which is the greatest praise we can give a wine. No winery in our portfolio over-delivers as much as Garciarévalo, as they represent some of the best values to be found in white wine from Spain, possibly the world.
