La Perdida, O Trancado (2020)

Nacho Gonzalez is one of the most progressive natural winemakers in all of Galicia. He actively seeks out vineyards that are isolated and remote. Up the hillsides, away from other farms, and down winding roads, he finds old abandoned vineyards and works to bring them back to health. He currently works with six vineyard sites in what would be the DO of Valdeorras, totaling about 4 hectares of vines. His approach to farming is to treat the vineyard as an ecosystem: allowing growth between the vines, using some biodynamic practices, and planting cover crops to help with disease and pests. Grapes are hand-harvested and foot-trodden. Nacho favors tinajas (Spanish tapered, clay amphora) and very old oak barrels for his aging vessels. Nacho is very experimental in the winery, despite being steadfastly traditional in the vineyard; sulfur has never been used. Nacho’s cellar is located in the small town of Larouco. The age of his vines range from 50 to 70 years old, with the oldest of his holdings coming from his grandmother. Larouco is home to many old bush vine plantings, a rarity in Valdeorras where the vineyards are mostly younger and trained in espaldera (double cordon). Another unique trait of Larouco is the presence of granite and clay soils, versus the more predominate slate of the region. Granite tends to give a pronounced purity and lightness to wines with a saline streak; clay gives structure and elegance. O Trancado comes from an old vineyard which Nacho inherited from his grandmother, named after the area it’s planted within, and the Garnacha Tintorera & Mencía vines yield less than 1kg of fruit per plant. The grapes were hand-harvested and destemmed, wild yeast fermented in 400L tinajas, then raised for 6 months before bottling without fining, filtration or added SO2, and held a further 6 months in bottle before release. This is an intensely complex vino tinto