Vinos de Madrid, Spain
Cinco Leguas
Marc Isart is a renowned Spanish wine maker. He was previously head enologist at the
acclaimed Bernabeleva (whose wines Vinalia members have enjoyed) before co-founding Comando G, another top winery in the Vinos de Madrid appellation. In 2013, Marc
established his own project in the Arganda subzone of the appellation with the sole purpose of making humble wines from the humble place where he grew up.
Cinco Leguas stands for Five Leagues, the maximum distance from the Royal Palace in Madrid in the 16th Century that wineries could be located to sell wine to royalty. The winery is in the town of Chinchón, about 60km south-east of Madrid. This area has a continental climate with hot and dry summers, and cold winters.
Rompecepas Tinto
Rompecepas literally translates to ‘vine breaker,’ but is named after a local train that operated over 100 years ago that was so slow that passengers could disembark and help themselves to the grapes on the vines before continuing their journey!
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The wine is made from Tinto Fino (a local clone of Tempranillo) grown in the villages of Colmenar, Chinchón and Belmonte on clay-limestone soils at an elevation of 740 m. The grapes are hand-harvested, typically in mid-September. After a slow and long fermentation (around 65 days) with indigenous yeasts, the wine is aged in used 500 litre oak barrels for 12 months. Around 5,000 bottles of this wine are produced.
La Maldición Blanco
All of Marc’s wines have a name that tells a story and La Maldición is no exception! ‘Maldición’ loosely translates to ‘curse’ and refers to the location of vineyards, far from town, so when farmers were asked where they were heading, the answer was ‘La Maldición,’ the cursed vineyards that took so long to get to. La Maldición Blanco is a truly gastronomic wine made from a rare white variety called Malvar.
The fruit is sourced from 80–100 year-old formerly abandoned vines on clay- limestone soils at 730 m altitude. Fermentation and maceration are on skins using indigenous yeasts. The wine is matured in neutral 300 litre oak vessels. While La Maldición is made like an orange wine, it has a clean aroma and flavour profile that truly expresses the unique terroir of the Arganda subzone of Vinos de Madrid. Around 8,000 bottles of this wine were produced.