Vizcarra wines are exciting and affordable

Date: 4/1/2016

Juan Carlos Vizcarra
Region- Ribera del Duero, Spain
Grape- Tinto Fino, the local name
for Tempranillo
Land- 64 acres
Wine to Try- J-C Vizcarra 2012
 ($29.99 at Table & Vine)

Many years ago when I traveled to Spain with Patrick Mata and Alberto Orte, to visit many of the wineries that Olé Imports represents, the most exciting winemaker we encountered was Juan-Carlos Vizcarra, I the town of Mambrilla de Castrejon I the Ribera del Duero region.  I called his J-C Vizcarra 2004 the most exciting wine I tasted in 2006.  I have since returned to Vizcarra a few times, and each time have dug a little deeper to learn more about Juan-Carlos and his winery.  

Rioja and Sherry were the original wines that put Spain on the International wine map, but over the past 20 years or so Ribera del Duero has emerged as another great source for Spanish reds.  Located about 115 miles north of Madrid it is at a higher elevation than most grape growing regions in Spain, and as a result is Spain’s coolest climate that produces red wine.  The resulting wines have power from their limestone soil and gravel subsoil.  Taming the power is something that good winemakers do by producing excellent fruit and then not messing it up when they get the juice into the winery.

Juan Carlos Vizcarra took over his family’s grape-growing and winemaking operation in 1991, before then the family had only sold their grapes to other wineries and made wines for drinking themselves, but Juan-Carlos wanted to take the winery beyond his ancestor’s dreams.  He set his sights on improving quality first, knowing full well that high quality would lead to greater commercial opportunities.  He was making the wines in a garage and in spite of the considerable physical labor involved he was doing all of the necessary lifting to allow the wines to be made by gravity, never being pumped with CO2 from tank to tank or barrel to tank, which can give the wines a hard edge and often stifles the purity.  As he worked his vineyards and improved the wines he did begin to have more commercial success and in 2004 began construction on a new winery, built into a hillside so the gravity flow process could be easily accommodated.  The winery was finished just in time for harvest 2007.

In May 2008 I was part of the first group of clients to visit Juan-Carlos for a tour and tasting in his new facility, an occasion he marked by popping some Cava for a toast.  What an exciting time for the Vizcarra family, farming their 64 acres to create wines that are being sought out by consumers Worldwide. That was the reward Juan-Carlos was looking for when he began this quest. This man is making less than 100,000 bottles of wine across six cuvees, and less than 2,000 cases of his wine will be sold in America.  

As we sat and tasted the wines I was again struck by the quality of the J-C, this time the 2006. Most of the time when I taste Tempranillo from Ribera Del Duero I think “Bordeaux-like,” but Juan-Carlos has a great understanding of how to use oak, and as a result this wine is the most Burgundian styled Ribera Del Duero I can ever recall tasting.  His goal is to make wines of grace and elegance, allowing what Mother Nature and his land give him to be the vehicle.  This particular wine reminds me of many of the 2005 Bourgogne Rouge we sold, it has bright red and black cherry fruit and a plush overall texture, underneath there is a core of tannin and outstanding acidity making this wine easy to enjoy now, but it will be a joy for a decade or two to come.  

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