2025 Bodegas Bernabeleva, Camino de Navaherreros Blanco, Vinos de Madrid DO, San Martín de Valdeiglesias, Spain.
This highly aromatic, bone dry white wine from Bodegas Bernabeleva, one of the pioneers of the Sierra de Gredos region and famous for the Garnacha based wines, comes from vines tucked high up in San Martín de Valdeiglesias, which lies a mere 60 minutes from Madrid, but the terrain here is remote, rugged and mountainous, and the cooler air helps vitalize the wines and makes for pure and balanced efforts. Made from mostly from old vine Abillo Real, along with Macabeo, Garnacha Blanca, Malvar, which I hadn’t heard of before, and a small dose of Muscat, the Camino de Navaherreros Blanco delivers zesty white peach, a mix of racy citrus, quince and a hint of green apple fruits on the vibrant, mineral toned, medium bodied and crisply focused palate, adding subtle spices, wild herb, jasmine, lemon oil and wet stone. The lifted florals from the Muscat are delicately perfumey, but the wine is wonderfully dry and lip smackingly good, best with lighter food choices and a perfect starter course bottle. The Navaherreros Blanco is produced from the listed white varieties, again primarily Albillo with Macabeo, that are scattered among the estate vineyards here. The grapes, all hand picked, see a few hours of skin contact before pressing and spontaneous fermentation, and the wine is aged for a short time on the lees, exclusively in neutral wood. The Blanco highlights the granite based sandy soils and the bright golden/straw hue, fresh acidity and that aromatic lift gives a ton of personality and good complexity, drink it with sea food and poultry dishes.
I’ve had the wines from Juan Bulnes’ Bernabeleva estate, many times in the past, and as mentioned above, he was one of the pioneers for Garnacha in the Gredos Mountains, west of Madrid on the high elevation sandy soils, with all his vines sitting more than 500m above sea level. The terroir here yields tangy, brilliantly aromatic wines, he notes, and I especially love the delicacy and elegance in the Garnacha here, with 4 Monos, Comando G and Dani Landi being producers I admire especially in the Sierra de Grdeos zone. I don’t often see or get the whites from this region, high above and away from the Capital and its chaos, but this one was truly lovely in the glass and each sip invited another, such was the charm and refreshing nature of this Camino de Navaherreros Blanco. The importer, Rare Wine Co, says the estate works their vineyards in harmony with nature, trusting organic methods, and employs old-school, minimal-intervention winemaking with the Garnacha based wines seeing long macerations and aging in mostly neutral wood. The estate, founded in 1923 by Vincente Alvarez-Villamil and named it Bernabeleva, or bear’s forest, believed it held more than just an ancient history, he thought it was a special place to plant Garnacha, and many years later he was proved right. Interestingly the great grandchildren here at Bernabeleva initially hired the legendary consultant Raúl Pérez, a master of cool-climate winemaking, to help develop the project. But now the family has things dialed in on their own and the wines are delicious and easy to love, as this delightful Blanco shows.
($22 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive