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JR's notes:

This article formed part of a series for the Spanish Supplement in WINE magazine in October, 1998. See also BOOMING AMONGST THE BUBBLIES (Cava) and RETURNING TO ITS ROOTS (Penedès), both published at the same time. The WINE magazine website is at www.wilmington.co.uk

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The Good, The Bad and La Mancha

'Official: Spain's Biggest Wine Region Not Crap After All!'

'Read All About It!' Says John Radford...

Barely ten years ago, the pundits were unanimous: the Airén was, we were told, an 'appalling' grape: horny, corny, bucolic and alcoholic and incapable of producing any quality wine; at all; ever. La Mancha was also too big/hot/dry/hick to make any red wine other than over-ripe, over-strength grape-soup, boiled to death in open tinajas, even from the Cencibel (Tempranillo), and any attempts to prove otherwise were doomed. This was the received 'wisdom'.

Ironically, up-province, much had already changed. In the early 1980s Colin Anderson and Angela Muir from Grants of St James's (as was) had promised to place large regular orders for Don Cortez white wines from the bodegas of Rodríguez y Berger in the village of Cinco Casas - but only if they installed new cool-fermentation technology and changed their winemaking style radically. The bodega complied and won the business. Even earlier, in the late 1970s, the Rumasa Group (as was) had spotted the combination of low costs land, grapes and labour which was represented by La Mancha, and they had built the state-of-the-art winery that is Vinícola de Castilla in Manzanares.

Once the pioneers had established that you could make a thoroughly acceptable, if rather neutral, dry white wine from Airén to high standards of quality control at rock-bottom prices, big retail business became very interested indeed, and investment began to improve. Careful harvesting and vinification proved that the Airén did actually have a subtly, herby freshness which was very pleasant if not outstanding, and that a bit of ageing - even in concrete tinajas - produced a wine of quite surprising, if modest character... And still at rock-bottom prices.

Having achieved this level of penetration into the supermarket trade, La Mancha now set its sights a little higher. In a three-year project between 1993 and 1996, the Consejo Regulador looked at ways of maximising La Mancha's advances so far, as well as examining new directions for the future. Meanwhile, the Viticultural Centre at Tomelloso was conducting exhaustive tests on alternative vine varieties and experimenting with fermentation and cask-ageing techniques.

The final report had three main provisions: first the reduction of the area under vines, with some 56 villages losing the right to the Denominación by the year 2002. Second came new grape permitted varieties, with not only the ubiquitous Cabernet-Sauvignon being added to the canon but also the Sauvignon Blanc and the Syrah... And the Viura/Macabeo because there's a new category of sparkling wines made by the traditional method called Espumoso de la Mancha. Third, new varieties demand new methods in the vineyard, and more effective training (on wires rather than free-standing) coupled with a much more pragmatic approach to drip-feed irrigation, is changing the landscape of La Mancha, little by little.

The first wines made under the new regulations appeared after the 1996 vintage, although it's quite common to find Cabernet-Sauvignon in reserva blends with Cencibel going back to the early 1990s, when the changes were first mooted (Oristan from Juan Ramón Lozano and Arboles de Castillejo from Torres Filoso are two good examples) and there are experimental varietals going back to the mid-1980s (Señorio de Guadianeja from Vinícola de Castilla, for example). However, the questions still remains to be answered - are they any good? Has all this work paid off? Let's look at each category separately:

White wines: as well as the supermarket whites which we have come to know well, there's a small amount of work being done with Chardonnay, sometimes with 6 months in oak (e.g. Arboles de Castillejo from Torres Filoso) or barrel-fermented in blends with other grapes (e.g. Selección from Vinícola de Castilla). Sauvignon Blanc is still really only at the experimental stage, and the real surprise has been Airén which is producing some really quite excellent wines with oak ( e.g. Castillo de Alhambra from Vinícola de Castilla - three months; Estola from Ayuso - six months; Yuntero from Nuestro Padre Jesús del Perdón - fermented in oak with 8 months on the lees).

Red wines: conventional wisdom that La Mancha is too hot (a) to grow decent Cabernet- Sauvignon and (b) to age red wines effectively in cask is being overturned here. Early success with the Cencibel in making delicious, fruity, joven wines with that south-European 'chewy-toffee' nose has led to excellent work with the Cabernet-Sauvignon, which is now coming out of La Mancha in every style, from packed-with-fruit jovenes made with a bit of the old maceración carbónica (whole-grape fermentation - Veronés from Santa Rita is an excellent example) right up to gran reserva level (e.g. Señorío de Guadianeja 1986 from Vinícola de Castilla). There's also some small amount of experimental and blending work with the Merlot and the Syrah, and wines made from Cencibel which staggered to reach crianza level are now being taken to reserva (e.g. Siglo XVI from Nuestra Señora de la Vega and, occasional ly, gran reserva). One of the most encouraging developments (here as elsewhere in Spain) is in Cencibel/Tempranillo blends at crianza level such as Tomillar from Virgen de las Viñas.

Sparkling wines: more work is needed, but there are early signs of promise. Most of the Viura vineyard is very immature in any case, but some of the wines are showing that slight oxidation which bedevilled so much of non-Catalan Cava in the early days. Front-runner at the moment is probably Cantares from Vinícola de Castilla, but it's likely to be another three to five years before these wines show what they can really do.

As the year 2000 approaches La Mancha, after carving itself a generous niche in the supermarket trade, is in the process of pulling itself up the quality ladder by its own bootstraps. A host of old prejudices - from within and without the region - have been swept away in the past five years alone. Who know what may be accomplished in the next five?

DO La Mancha - Vines and Wines - (new reglamento of 1996)

White Grapes:

Airén, Pardillo - (1) traditional wines typically made in concrete tinajas for local consumption; (2) light, fresh joven whites picked early and cool-fermented in stainless steel for the supermarket export market.

Viura/Macabeo - for the new Espumoso de La Mancha, as well as in blends with Viura and sometimes Airén.

Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc - new joven varietal wines, some barrel fermentation, a little crianza (rare).

Red Grapes:

Moravia, Garnacha - (1) traditional wines typically made in concrete tinajas for local consumption; (2) light, fresh joven reds and rosados, often a Garnacha/Cencibel blend, for the supermarket export market.

Cencibel/Tempranillo, Cabernet-Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah - used varietally or in blends (esp. Cabernet/Tempranillo) from joven up to gran reserva level, but typically crianza or reserva.

Red wine ageing terms: joven - wine with no oak age, sold immediately; crianza - at least 6 months in oak, sold after two years; reserva - at least a year in oak, sold after three years; gran reserva - at least two years in oak, sold after five years. Espumoso - sparkling wine made by the Cava method (but not entitled to the Denominación Cava).

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