JORGE OLIVERA
O Baile do Gurrión 2023
Aragon, Spain
Mostly Garnacha, the remainder of this canny blend is made up of Macabeo and Garnacha Blanca. The vines are thirty years old, and planted over six hundred metres above sea level on silty, calcareous soils. The grapes were destemmed and the wine fermented on the skins for a fortnight, before being pressed to old casks for a year of élevage. A striking shade of red in the glass, it is light, bright and nimble, offering soaring notes of red berries, blood orange and spice.
Please note there is a limit of one bottle per customer. This product is excluded from any discount codes.
Garnacha, Macabeo, Garnacha Blanca
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Several years ago, tasting with our friend Eloi Cédo Perello in his cellar in Mallorca, we asked who was making his favourite wines in Spain and he mentioned two names, one of whom was a young guy from Aragón named Jorge Olivera.
Our curiosity piqued, we soon booked another trip to Spain to meet the man and try to understand his work.
Jorge comes from the tiny village of Coscojuela de Sobrarbe in Huesca, a picturesque spot surrounded by nature at the foot of the Pyrenees. It was once home to many vineyards, but as in much of Spain, migration to the cities, the abandonment of agriculture and a shift in priorities mean that very few of them are tended today.
He planted his first vines in 2009 and spent over a decade refining his craft in relative obscurity, juggling his hobby with his work as a mechanical engineer. In 2022 he left his job to focus fully on wine, and since then, has quickly garnered a reputation for producing some of the most beautiful wines in all of Spain.
A first-generation grower, curiously Jorge is entirely self-taught, instead working backwards from decades of tasting his favourite wines, and using his curiosity, intuition and undoubted talent to figure out what it is that makes them click, and applying that to the fascinating varieties that grow in his mountain home.
Today he farms seven hectares of vines across small parcels set around six hundred metres above sea level, working organically with a great respect for nature. The soils are of calcareous origin, and along with the elevation, they lend the wines an airy, luminous quality.
The wines are made in a small bodega he and his father dug into the hillside, which provides insulation during the long, hot summers. His work here is characterised by attention to detail and a real lightness of touch, with gentle extractions and élevage used to beautiful effect.
Although their breathtaking purity and beguiling texture remind us of mountainous wines from further afield, Jorge’s carry a distinctly Spanish accent – seasoned delicately with salt, citrus, herbs and spice. As such, they are truly one of a kind.