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Moratinos, Phylloxera, and Hobbit Dwellings

As you walk into the small village if Moratinos in the Spanish province of León, you see a small hill to one side, with a series of small doors at the bottom, that ring it, and small chimneys closer to the top. Although they do look like Hobbit dwellings, they are old caves that were dug out as wine cellars, with some estimates dating them back over 500 years. Currently only four families make wine in their caves, several others use them for storing meats and cheeses, and about half of them have caved in and are in disrepair.

The Hobbit hill of Moratinos

Segundino is one of seven brothers, and they were making the family wine as I walked around the bottom of the hill. They had harvested their grapes from a few kilometers away, and I was invited in to see how they were pressing off the grapes, and getting ready to start the fermentation process. The press is done using an old horizontal wine press, and the juice is then transferred into the cave for fermentation. I tried a bit of the freshly pressed Mencia.

Horizontal wood press

Two major changes have affected wine making on this hill in Moratinos. Segundino said that the whole area, including the entirety of the hill itself, were once planted in grapes, and families made their wine together, until deadly phylloxera wiped all of the grapes out. Many could not afford to replant, and coupled with significant out-migration, the vineyards of Moratinos never recovered. There are few people who want to take the trouble to bring grapes from a distance, to make wine at this point.

Currently, they bring in grapes from about 20 kilometers away, in vineyards planted closer to one of the brothers. The vineyard that Segundino planted and cares for has black grape

Segundino in the family cave

varieties of Tempranillo and Mencia, and they make a bit of Godello, a white varietal they brought in from Galicia. “This is all just for family, and even though there are seven of us, we’re all getting old, so we really don’t drink all that much. Well, most of the time,” he said with a bit of a smile.

The Caves of the Rioja

As you walk the Camino Francés, you strategically take a day off here and there – mine are usually in larger cities, where there is amazing food and wine to enjoy. In the case of Logroño, that is an easy stop to make. First of all, there is Calle Laurel, which is a whole street dedicated to tapas bars, where the tradition is to go in, order ONE tapa and a glass of wine, sore moving on to the next one, and doing the same, and the next, and the next.
A second reason to stop is because Logroño is in the heart of Rioja wine country, and there are plenty of bodegas to visit, and wine to drink. One of the bodegas I went to with a guide named Roberto, was to Bodegas Lecea in San Asensio ok. San Asensio is an interesting town of hundreds of homes, almost all of which have a cave dug underneath them for winemaking purposes. This was done for hundreds of years, up until recently, and now Lecea is the lone remaining bodega that does that. As you walk around you you can see homes, and then next to them, mounds of dirt and rock, from the digging of the caves, and then chimneys and vents that allow the bad air and gasses to escape.

A cave vent from underground.

Underground, you see greatly varying caves – some massive, and some small. Where you see a barrel, it is one that has been hauled underground and assembled and sealed once in place. But the favored fermentation tank for later caves were concrete

Oak barrel assembled in cave.

tanks. Think about the work that that would take… digging out the cave, providing venting, and then getting the materials underground to build set of fermentation tanks several meters underneath the house.

Concrete tank built underground in cave

We often talk about things like Protected Denomination of Origin as a way to make sure that quality is assured, and Rioja and Priorat have done that well, in Spain. But a hidden side of that improved quality through requiring standards and having regulation, is that some of the old ways of doing things become impossible, and such is the case in San Asensio. As Rioja DOCa regulations came in, quantity requirements were made, and oak barrel regulations came in. Wine had to be moved in and out of tanks and barrels, and this just proved to be too much, if you wanted to make and sell wine in this new Rioja reality.
Now, commercially, only one remains, and that is Bodegas Lecea. All of the other growers of wine now belong to a cooperative that allows for the scale, movement, and time in oak, but above ground. The family of Bodegas Lecea continue to use not only their own cave, but have now bought others as well. They buy a property and the house, and with that home ownership, comes the rights to the cave underneath. Under the ground, they punch a hole into the next cave, complete repairs that are usually needed after decades of lack of use, and then expand their wine-making into the next cave. They now have four joined caves in which they make wine, which is incredible to think about.

This almost feels like an afterthought to write… but the wine is pretty damned good, too!

The Camino Aragonés and Garnacha

Camino 2022 Beginnings

I started walking the Camino Aragonés, and then  will join up with the Camino Francés, my second time walking the Camino de Santiago. As I walk, I will also be doing an occasional wine blog, as I stop and talk with people in wine regions. I hope to finish the Camino in mid-October, and then explore more wine regions in Portugal and other parts of Spain. There are many paths to the Camino, but the

most traditional is the Francés, which starts in southern France, and then stretches across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. There is a rich history of the Camino, dating back to the 9th century, and possibly even before that, which you may find here https://makespain.com/camino-de-santiago/

Camino Aragonés and Garnacha

In 2019, after spending time in South America visiting bodegas, I walked the Camino Francés, from St. Jean Pier de Port to Santiago de Compostela. In 2022, I started in the northern part of Aragón, in part, to learn a bit about wines from that region. I actually started in the Pyrenees, at Canfranc Station, which is known most historically for being an escape route used by resistance leaders who were helping Jews escape Hitler´s labor camps during World War Two. As I headed south of Canfranc, dropping out of the Pyrenees, I came to the City of Jaca, and as I explored, I found some incredible wines.
Garnacha is common in this region of Spain, and some would argue that this is where it actually comes from – The Kingdom of Aragón. There are different was to try and determine where grapes come from, and one of them is by looking at where they were established in the relatively modern era. If we follow this method, then it may not be Aragón that is the provenance of Garnacha or Grenache, it might be from regions in France. However, with DNA testing, another method is to look at the earliest and most numerous sub-variants of a grape are present, historically speaking. And if that is the case, then Aragón certainly has a very good case for being the originator of present day Garnacha.
I started the Camino Aragonés in Estación Canfranc, and dropped down into Jaca, Spain in a couple of days. In Jaca I tried a flight of wines from Aragon at Langa Vinoteca, two of which were Garnachas and two of which were blends. The 2018 Campo de Borja from Fagus de Coto de Hayas had dark cherry notes, medium tanninsand a very nice finish. The Secastilla 2017
Garnacha was a high altitude, limited production wine that had rip your face off tannins and a smoking 15% ABV. Nice peppery  and savory notes that I like a lot, once I got over all that had happened in my mouth just prior to that.
I then did two blends, and the Grillo y Luna 2014 was another 15% abv, but a Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon/Garnacha/Merlot blend. The palate started with plum and herbaceous qualities, and finished off spicy and peppery, with some pretty strong tannins, even after 8 years. The final wine
was a 2011 Blecua from the Somontano region of Huesca, Aragon, and a Cabernet Sauvignon/Tempranillo/Syrah/Merlot blend, and a reasonable 14% abv that didn’t quite smoke the back of my throat like the previous two wines had done. Dark plum and burnt rubber on the nose, plum and savory notes on the palate. The tannins were significant, but softer and rounder, given the vintage.

Next, I will be on my way across Aragon to Navarra, starting in Pamplona, as I join the Camino Francés. I will post occasional blog posts, as time and energy permit, while on the Camino. If you’d like to see day to day pics of the Camino, follow me on Instagram at Jeff D. Peterson (injeffinitely) and for occasional short wine posts, follow me on Instagram at Vinum Docet (vinumdocet).

Langa Vinoteca