Gomez Cruzado. David, a romantic in Rioja Classica
Haro, Rioja. We are at “Barrio de la Estacion” and so we find the expected train station. Around it are the cellars of this traditional Rioja, with classic wines, in that unchanged profile that made the region famous (and is one of the sacred identities in the wine world). But here, in Haro, the heart of the region, we can find more than just that sacred side, particularly a very special house, the Gomez Cruzado, where my friend and winemaker David is waiting for us in a cold morning to show us one more discovery of his vintages.
David is an interesting guy, very calm, thorough in the way he speaks. He is a romantic and his enthusiasm arrives with the details. We enter the bodega, his world of experimentation, and we start travelling through the vinification process of each wine, the peculiarity of each vineyard slope, climate or variety… When you get that, let us speak because, for us winemakers, each wine is a travelling experience, thoroughly appreciated. Even more here, because it is as if these wines, made with detail in mind and originated from sustainable viticulture, brought new Rioja’s to the table of Rioja. And that is extraordinary.
For David, everything starts in the vineyard and the identification of a few very special plots, in different areas of the region, that immediately allow him to search for new innovative interpretations of varieties so well known. We are in a region of classic red, concentrated Tempranillo’s with long ageing’s in oak barrels, but here in Gomez Cruzado I immediately want to talk about a white wine, made with Viura and Tempranillo Blanco (a rioja mutation variety), born from old vineyards and with a fermentation divided between French oak barrels and… a concrete egg – we are in a house where the artisanal side and the technology go hand in hand, always looking for the pure expression of each wine.
The white wine I am talking about is named Montes Obarenes is included in a special collection of the producer called “Seleccion Terroir”, and the name says it all – the grapes come from a small vineyard located in Montes Obarenes, where the harvest of Tempranillo Blanco is done in different ripening stages. After, in the cellar, the wine is conducted to express all its character and minerality. In the end, it becomes this enormous white wine, fill bodied but fresh, surprising! – “Why bring Chardonnay to a region with such a great identity when we can achieve a wine as distinct as this?” asks David.
We move forward to the reds. My greatest surprise is called Pancrudo. It’s an enigmatic red and as soon as it gets into the glass, we realize we are in front of something different. An open colour, an intense perfume aroma and an explosive mouthfeel. Here the keyword is elegance. Everything at the right point. It’s a Garnacha, of old vineyards, of course, canopies are managed in a vase shape without any wiring. I would say it is a kind of Rioja Pinot. It comes from a more rainy and fresher area, closer to the Cantabric mountains where Garnacha was tested in three different soils and showed surprising results. It doesn’t get high probable alcohols (maximum 13,5), but it achieves an incredible elegance, much more surprising because we are in Rioja.
Obviously, David also has his classics, although always with a twist making them more interesting. Look at his great red Honorable, a big red, Tempranillo in all its glory, but much more clean, classy, surely because David almost always only uses French oak and, within this more traditional profile, he always gets another sense of purity and elegance – it may sound as a profanity here in Haro, the heart of Rioja, but not all reds must be filled with American oak and end up with harsh tannins.
These delicate and fine wines are the result of the fantastic experimentation work David does. He may look like a kind of Dom Quixote in a set that isn’t his own, I rather think that he is a terroir romantic, in love with an authenticity that arrives from the vineyard, or a breath of fresh air in a Rioja that can also have a different shape.
Yes, we have sacred regions, but that doesn’t mean we can’t innovate. The Gomez Cruzado House is over 100 years old, the cellar, painted walls toward the streets or the signature in every bottle transpire history through every pore, but all this heritage and reputation are far from meaning the wines are immovable. In the end, they have also evolved within their own identity and they surprise us every day. Congratulations David. Such fantastic wines!
