ORGANICALLY GROWN
JOSE ANTONIO GARCIA WINES
Bierzo, Castilla y León, Spain
Jose Antonio García and his wife Julia Peña García are part of an exciting new generation of vignerons in Bierzo. Both of them have their family roots in Bierzo. Jose and Julia’s families have owned vineyards in Bierzo for generations, providing wines that would become the backbone of other famous blends, but never bottling for themselves.
Jose and Julia have spent the past decade recuperating their historic vineyards by hand, a monumental work, considering the 22ha they own and the fact that they are doing all of the work themselves. Likewise, the winery itself is housed in a building, hundreds of years old, in Valtuille de Abajo, which Jose and Julia have brought back to life by hand, stone by stone, building new walls from the rubble of previous generations. Renewal and rebirth are themes which run deep throughout the very soul of these wines.
Bierzo, Casilla y Leon, Spain
What the critics are saying
“The range of wines from José Antonio García keeps growing, and the quality is still getting better and better. From 2020, he has village wines from Valtuille and Corullón and the Unculín Mencía is also Vino de Villa. He works 25 hectares of old vines in Valtuille de Abajo and Corullón and produces 80,000 bottles. Some of the new wines are the best I've seen from him. A name to follow in Bierzo.”
-Luis Gutiérrez
The Region
Jose and Julia work 29 parcels (22 hectares) in Valtuille de Abajo, in the heart of Bierzo. Their vines are between 80 and 120 years old. They also cultivate 4 more hectares of smaller winegrowers of the area. All of these vineyards are located between 500 and 600 metres, influenced by an Atlantic climate that is partly continental and mild. They work with respect towards the environment, performing organic winegrowing, and aiming to produce wines that represent the area, with local varieties, and always loyal to the terroir where they were born.
Jose works 29 parcels in Valtuille de Abajo, in the heart of Bierzo and where his vines are at their youngest at 80 years and oldest at around 120 and perhaps even more excitingly, several hectares in the region of Corullon. This is exciting for two reasons; first the vines here are planted on near vertical slopes in the most amazing valley and second; he and Palacios are the only two growers to have vineyards in this commune.
Bierzo has adopted a new quality-based classification system for its wines, closely following the Burgundian structure of regional, village, and single-vineyard wines. In the Vino de Villa classification system, 100% of the grapes must come from vineyards within the village of Valtuille, and yields are more than 20% below the limit for D.O. Bierzo. Other quality-conscious regulations have been implemented that now make the Bierzo appellation a leading producer of fine wine in not only Spain but in the whole of Europe.
Vineyard Notes
Because of the orography of Valtuille, due to littles slopes, soils changes on each vineyard. There are vineyards with clay soils, but also few sandy areas and at the top of the slopes with galets. This lastest soils are very poor, which makes the plant work all the time. As a result, we have very low yields but high quality grapes.
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