Wines for International Garnacha Day
Every year, on the third Friday in September, International Garnacha Day (El Día Internacional de la Garnacha) is celebrated.
Believed to be native to Aragón, Garnacha (also known as Garnacha Tinta) is a late-ripening variety resistant to wind and drought that produces high-alcohol wines with abundant red berry fruit flavours and moderate acidity.
In Spain, it’s an important variety in many wine regions including Aragón (Calatayud, Cariñena and Campo de Borja), Navarra, Rioja, the Gredos mountains, Madrid, Méntrida and Priorat/Montsant.
It might be surprising to learn that for many years Garnacha was under-appreciated, with many vines being grubbed up in the 1980s and 1990s. Even more so given that many of Spain’s most notable winemakers are now working with old vine Garnacha in higher-elevation sites with cooler conditions to make elegant and transparent wines that express the character of the place they come from.
Here are some wines made with Garnacha Tinta that Spanish Wine Collective writers are drinking on International Garnacha Day 2024.
Alan Nance selects a fine and elegant cuvée from the Sierra de Gredos.
Rozas 1er Cru 2020 (Comando G)
D.O. Vinos de Madrid
Variety: Garnacha Tinta
ABV: 14%
€48.90 from Bodeboca (2021 vintage)
Searching my cellar for something to celebrate International Garnacha Day I was delighted to come across a wine I'd forgotten was there, even more so when I saw how the price of subsequent vintages has soared.
I could talk to you about red berries and roses, about granite and vines at 900 m altitude, but instead I'll simply say that as I poured and supped this wine, I found myself singing an old Jackson Browne tune. And what I sang was a twist on a lyric, so that it was not a lover but a wine that was giving me a taste of something fine. Seek out the wine, listen to the tune, they'll take you somewhere fine.
Chris Lynch chooses a Garnacha from Andalusia that transmits the slate terroir of the Axarquía.
Magnético 2021 (Viñedos Verticales)
D.O. Sierras de Málaga
Variety: 100% Garnacha
ABV: 13%
€18.90 from Bodeboca
On International Garnacha Day, I happen to be sat in the happy, sunny city of Málaga. To celebrate, I’m on my roof terrace supping a wine that evokes the slate slopes of the Axarquía region, nearly 30 km to the east of the city.
You can feel the heroic work that these guys put in to produce a wine that evokes such a sense of place. If you enjoy freshness, with lots of red fruit and plenty of minerality in your wine, then this is definitely for you!
Bill Bolloten picks a wine from the birthplace of Garnacha.
Manda Huevos 2019 (El Escocés Volante)
No DO, but made in Calatayud, Aragón
Varieties: 90% Garnacha, 10% Moristel, Provechon, Garnacha Blanca
ABV: 14%
€19.90 from El Escocés Volante
€20.35 from Decántalo
Winemaker Norrel Robertson MW works in an area full of old Garnacha vines. He created this field blend from vines in two adjacent parcels with the same name, Caña Andrea, in Villarroya de la Sierra in Calatayud. The wine is fermented with 20% whole bunch, aged on its lees for 14 months with a further 18 months in bottle.
It’s pale ruby in colour with an aromatic red fruit nose. The palate is quite full and ripe, but lifted by fresh acidity and balanced with dusty tannins. The finish is lingering and earthy. A really tasty Garnacha from its ancestral homeland.