Alex's Notes on Finca Allende

One of the most memorable bottles of my life thus far was an early 90’s red from the Allende stable.  I’d spotted it tucked away in a wine warehouse in Spain.

It was magnificent, with its enticing aromas of dark fruit, tobacco, roasted coffee, and cedar leaping out of the glass.

To me it was perfect in every way; it had matured spectacularly, and while mouthfilling and complex, it had unbelievable finesse.

Sadly, I only got to have the one glass as this bottle – the very last bottle the wine merchant owned - had to stretch to six people.

Regrets? I’ve had a few…..

Two people working in a field with a donkey plowing the soil.

TL;DR

Finca Allende is one of Spain’s most prestigious wineries, yet it is also one of its most humble: no flamboyant hotel and visitor centre designed by some famous architect, no glitzy marketing, no fleet of tractors or branded ATVs – just horses!

Their sole focus is on making the very best wines possible in the most sustainable way possible; nothing else matters here.

Wine Spectator have rated every one of Finca Allende’s wines over 90 points (Outstanding, With A Superior Character And Style).

Winemaker - Miguel Ángelo de Gregorio

Miguel’s philosophy is that “the wine is made in the vineyard” and so he treats it “with absolute delicacy”. This means the wines are very gently handled, for instance using gravity rather than pumps for racking (moving the wine between vessels) and racking numerous times to remove solids rather than using filtration (which can compromise the ultimate quality).

Nothing is left to chance when it comes to fruit quality (and no, this really is not marketing speak): selection of bunches at harvest is only done manually, with further manual sorting of bunches on entry to the winery, followed by optical sorting of berries after the bunches are destemmed. These are the lengths you have to go to, to make the best wine possible; the attention to detail and extra work required is insane.

Optical sorting is automated, more discerning than the human eye, and thus the final arbiter. Used only by those looking to make the very best wine possible (as optical sorting equipment is hellishly expensive): it is a process using cameras and sensors to discard undesirable berries and any MOG (Matter Other Than Grapes).

Rioja Standouts

As profound and serious as the wines of Finca Allende undoubtedly are, they are also remarkably elegant and refreshing, arrestingly aromatic (especially with age), fruit-driven, and almost uncannily weightless.

This makes the wines all the more profound and sought-after as they avoid the oaky excess and/or overt plushness that can be found in quite a lot of Rioja: no overt sweetness or ‘char’ that a heavy-handed use of American oak often imparts (American oak having long been dominant in Rioja for historical reasons), no excess fat or heaviness, just plenty of finesse and what the Spanish call ‘bebibilidad’ or the French ‘buvabilité’ (drinkability).

But this is of course far from meaning drinkability in the easy-quaffing sense, it refers to the wine’s balance, its freshness, its digestibility, its subtlety, its oak integration, its food affinity, its moderate alcohol.

Sustainability

There aren’t many wine producers, particularly in Rioja, who could claim a greater focus on sustainability and respect for the environment than Allende: only organic fertilisers are used; they use horses rather than tractors to minimise soil compaction and carbon emissions; they do not use herbicides or any synthetic chemicals; they use natural cork washed and sterilised without the use of any chemicals; labels, foils, cardboard boxes are all fully recyclable.

Originality of Approach

Miguel Ángel de Gregorio approaches many things differently from other Rioja producers.

Firstly he doesn't use American oak; he favours French oak which imparts its flavour compounds in a significantly more subtle way.

He also eschews the traditional, rather blunt quality grading system of Crianza/Reserva/Gran Reserva.

These categories simply refer to how long a wine must legally spend in oak (and then in bottle) to carry the designation and aren’t necessarily indicative of - or guarantors of - inherent wine quality, even though they influence pricing.

This gives Allende more freedom to age their wines as they see fit and to allow their fruit - and thus the land on which it is grown (what the French call 'terroir') - to have the biggest voice in their wines, rather than the wood in which the wines are aged.

Terroir

The altitude of the vineyards is critical to the quality of Finca Allende wines, as is the fact that they make site-specific wines from single vineyards. This has been a growing trend over the last few decades in Rioja, but is far from the norm. Historically, producers have sourced fruit across many different vineyard areas and then blended them together, diluting any sense of terroir.

The Mingortiz vineyard - which gives the red wine in your case its name - is at an altitude of 515 metres which helps to preserve freshness; and it was planted in 1964, meaning yields are miniscule and the fruit of such superb concentration that it will allow the resulting wine to effortlessly ingest the 16 months it spends in new French oak and for it to mature beautifully for many years, with ageing potential of at least 25 years.

The grapes for the Blanco are sourced from Allende’s vineyards in Briones (Rioja Alta) where the vines are an average age of 55 years old!

"It is the terroir and only the terroir that bestows on a wine its magic and grandeur."

Miguel Ángel de Gregorio

Finca Allende Wines

Give us a cheers!