Quinta da Muradella: The latest arrivals from the one of Spain's most influential growers

“Although it is fascinating to taste wines from these relatively obscure varieties, what shines here is 'the soul of Monterrei' and the deft, light-handed winemaking of a skilful and intuitive winemaker.” Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com


 
The grungy frontier town of Verín on the Spanish/Portuguese border isn’t the first place you’d expect to find a winegrower whose peers hold up as one of the most influential Spanish vignerons of his era. And yet it was here, amid the quirky mishmash of industrial and medieval streets that we first found José Luis Mateo delivering a few cases of his wine to his family’s café/bar A Canteira. Luis Gutiérrez describes the wine that was being delivered as “the best house wine I’ve ever tried in a restaurant”. It is pretty handy, so much so that we are busy trying to convince JLM to make some for us. But that’s another story.

Given the relative anonymity of Muradella’s wines on the world stage, Mateo’s key role in the renaissance of Spanish wine, and Galicia in particular, may surprise local readers. Regardless, the artisanal, vineyard driven model of winegrowing that Mateo has followed over the last twenty plus years in the wild, remote terroirs of Monterrei on the edge of Galicia has blazed a trail that many of northern Spain’s new breed of exciting and dedicated wine growers have been able to follow. Just as the cream of young French winegrowers studied and tried to emulate the work of Selosse, Foucault, and Dagueneau, a good number of their Spanish counterparts looked towards this secluded corner of Galicia for their inspiration.

The characteristics that made Mateo stand out so starkly at the height of Spanish viticulture’s industrial revolution why he is such a cherished resource for... learn more