Introducing Uva de Vida

Perhaps you know and love Graciano; perhaps it’s just been a little footnote in a Rioja blend; perhaps you’ve heard some buzz about it from California? Perhaps it would be a household name if it wasn’t such a beast to farm, because its aroma and structure is universally adored by the tireless vignerons that haven’t pulled it out in frustration. Carmen López and her husband and partner Luis Ruiz have made this grape the vector for their vision of regenerative wine: UVA DE VIDA.

You must be a devoted grower to endure Graciano’s roguery. Its minuscule yields are eye-watering. It is extremely susceptible to water pressures, especially from mildew, further lowers its yields and demands steadfast vigilance, especially if you’re going to farm biodynamically. And to top it all off, Graciano ripens quite late—and ripen it must! As another of its devotees, Manfred Krankl of Sine Qua Non, puts it: “Unless Graciano fully ripens, it is not interesting. It needs a lot of hang time.”



So here’s a grape that needs a dry place with a long growing season, not much water pressure, plenty of sunlight, but also needs plenty of acidity-preserving chilly nights, and with as few unforeseen late season weather conundrums as one can avoid. Enter Carmen López, a visionary vigneronne, who after surviving cancer decided to return to her family’s land and pursue a new mode of farming and homesteading in harmony with nature. She endeavored to try something entirely new. She planted biodynamic vineyards, thirteen hectares of them, on limestone clay sites at 500m above sea level just north of Toledo, and decided to focus her energy on this stallion varietal, Graciano. 

Graciano—aka Bastardo Nero, Morrastel, Bordelais, and Sardinia’s Cagnulari—is a recalcitrant delinquent in the vineyards, yet it gives the most seductive and intensely perfumed juice, such beautiful tannins, and a Hades-deep colour that dazzles the eye. That’s why Graciano is such a key component in Rioja’s best Gran Reservas, and why its all the rage in California right now (especially the Central Coast) since a happy mistake in 2011 saw a nursery sell Graciano to several growers under the false ID of Monastrell/Mourvèdre.*

*Not unlike Mourvèdre in the Rhône or Canaiolo in Chianti, Graciano was widely planted across Spain and the South of France and extremely prized prior to the devastation of phylloxera in the late 19th Century. After Europe's vineyards were re-planted with the phylloxera resistant rootstock to protect them from phylloxera, these former super-star varieties shared the same fate. They didn’t take well to grafting, becoming too low yielding to be commercially viable. We owe the survival of these varieties to the economic sacrifices and dedication of wine farmers!

It is one thing to believe in Biodynamics and apply it in your vineyards. It’s another to combine this philosophy with such a notoriously difficult variety. Carmen López is a true believer. You can see it in her farming. Her vines are not defoliated whatsoever. They grow naturally. Grazing cattle are used for both the ‘mowing’ and the fertilizing. Everything is done according to the lunar calendar. Her spiritual connection to her wines continues into the cellars where music is played and wines like her Madre Graciano are left whole cluster in terracotta amphorae for over nine months on their skins without interference or interruption. These are wines that are tenderly nurtured. All that is good and well but does the juice prove out in the glass? Here is where Carmen goes from being the Don Quixote de Graciano to La Maga de Graciano — she pulls it off! 

“If we take care of the earth, we take care of ourselves,” Carmen affirms. “Life has given me a new opportunity.” This is hard-won wisdom for López. After a sudden illness and prolonged recovery, her disposition to life was completely refocused. She saw her personal renewal as something she could mirror in the way she farmed. “We made this decision when my illness pushed us to look for everything related to living and life in seeking to recover health.” In 2005, she and her partner Luis Ruiz pioneered biodynamic farming and winemaking in the Toledo province of Spain. López believed the dry continental climate here could be ideal for Graciano. She planted her vineyards a remarkable 5:2 Graciano to Tempranillo. What a gambit! Graciano is rare enough, let alone among the cereal fields and olive groves of Castilla-La Mancha.

Delgado’s spiritual journey in life and viniculture is reflected in the Mandala symbol on her labels; it mirrors the geometric layout of her vineyards. The eight-pointed star references Toledo’s Arabic and Jewish past and illustrates delicate yet stable balance between spirit and matter. She is part of the international movement in winemaking to recover true symbiosis between the grower and their land. Her Graciano’s are a heady tonic that testify to the immense energy encrypted in this balance.

Alberta CSPC/SKU #888557

2021 Biográfico Rosado

Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

A dark and deeply Spanish rosé with the body of a full on red and a rich, serious profile. We find Tempranillo's earthy, woodsy side in this enigmatic claret, moving from sour cherry and raspberry to clay like minerality and muscular herbs when served cold. Allow it to come up to 10-15 degrees and visit this wine in its happy purgatory between red and rosé where it will reveal its many deliciously off-beat surprises. For the Somm, it's a really fun wine to play with pairing ideas. The heavier paella styles of the Catalan country side or the famous suckling pig of Segovia come to mind, and of course Toledo's own partridge dish, perdiz a la toledana.

Region:  Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha

Appellation:  Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

Altitude:  500m

Soils:  Clay & Limestone

Varietal:  90% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano

Fermentation:  24 hours of cold pellicular maceration whole cluster before being pressed to stainless steel. Indigenous fermentation and full MLF.

Ageing:  Stainless steel. Bottled unfined and unfiltered (but racked off the lees for a clearer style) without any sulfites added.

Vineyard & Vine Age:  Organic & Biodynamic certified. Vineyard located in the village of Santa Olalla outside Toledo. Hand harvested into 15 kg boxes.

ABV:  14.5%

Produced Cases:  166

Alberta CSPC/SKU #888556

2020 Biográfico Tinto

Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

A high toned Spanish red with beautiful structure, silky tannins, and a delicate nose. Notes of fresh and dried blueberry, black plum, and more anise, mushroom, and savoury spice now emerging beautifully with some age. A terrific food wine for any number of dishes you don't want to over power but are looking to compliment with some earthy depth and minerality, that stolid virtue of Graciano.

Region:  Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha

Appellation:  Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

Altitude:  500m

Soils:  Clay & Limestone

Blend:  80% Graciano, 20% Tempranillo

Fermentation:  Natural fermentation in stainless steel with only 7 days of maceration.

Ageing:  Stainless steel. Bottled unfined and unfiltered (but racked off the lees for a clearer style) without any sulfites added.

Vineyard & Vine Age:  Biodynamic. Vineyard located in the village of Santa Olalla outside Toledo. Hand harvested into 15 kg boxes.

ABV:  13.5%

Produced Cases: -

Alberta CSPC/SKU #888558

2020 Madre Graciano

Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

A singular wine experience. The Madre is a very limited edition 100% biodynamic Graciano fermented whole cluster in a single sealed amphora for nine months. The result is awesome — a many-layered wine that upends expectations. Enigmatically bottled under crown cap, this is the headiest tonic one could hope to display under the heading 100% Graciano. On the nose it is extremely intense and powerful with terrific complexity, the fruit profile chthonic and thrilling: blackberries, blueberries, and black plum—fresh, stewed, and dried—followed by wild boreal herbs like nettle, yarrow, and spruce tips, then unfolding with beguiling spices like licorice and star anise and medicinal aromatics of menthol and dried flowers and even cocoa (owing entirely to the fruit as there were no barrels involved here!). In the mouth, the wine is colossal. It is a BFG at a towering 15.5% alcohol, obtained entirely without embellishment or selected yeasts or enzymes or chaptalization or over-farming. Its clay-based muscle is beautifully scaffolded by a textured acidity that resounds in the wine, giving it amplitude rather than raw power. The finish is long and gives an almost candied quality like a fine port. And all this without a dose of SO2, so counterintuitive to the normal stylings of a natural wine in amphorae as to broaden your horizons in a single glass.

Try pairing this beauty with bbq pork, rich (but less piquant) curries, mushroom dishes, heavier gnocchis, freshly made pasta, or sharp creamy cheeses.

Region:  Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha

Appellation:  Vino de la Tierra de Castilla

Altitude:  500m

Soils:  Clay & Limestone

Blend:  100% Graciano

Fermentation:  Natural fermentation in a single amphora — left sealed nine months with the skins.

Ageing:  Aged nine months in amphora followed by one year further in stainless steel. Bottled unfined and unfiltered (but racked off the lees for a clearer style) without any sulfites added. Bottled under crown cap.

Vineyard & Vine Age:  Biodynamic. Vineyard located in the village of Santa Olalla outside Toledo. Hand harvested into 15 kg boxes.

ABV:  15.5%

Production: ~1000 bottles