Gran Cerdo Tinto

Gran Cerdo Tinto comes from the Rioja Alta region of Spain, and the wine is driven by primary red fruit flavours such as cherry, strawberry and raspberry. This combined with a hint of violet and a slight earthy edge from the minimal intervention wine making process gives the wine a slight herbaceousness and added layer of complexity. Unfiltered, unfined and very expressive red made with minimal sulphur.

Gonzalo Gonzalo was born in Logroño, Spain and grew up among the vineyards that his parents cultivated in Fuenmayor. After studying biology in León and oenology in the university of Rioja, he dedicated himself to travelling through France and Italy where he met small vine-growers and winemakers and discovered new varieties of grape and technologies After completing his oenologist training in an industrial winery, in 2003 he abandoned everything to give birth to Orgullo, his personal oenology project.

Fiercely protective of the terroir of his family vineyards Gonzalo rejects market driven fashions, formulae, chemical treatments and conformism. Instead he has sought out his own methods with respect for the land, his vineyards, and the traditions of his forefathers. He balances this respect with formal training in the latest enological techniques and methods.

Gonzalo was profoundly influenced in his choice of viticultural methods by the fact that his father became seriously ill from years of daily exposure to high-spec chemical fertilizers and herbicides while tending their vineyards in the 1970s, when they were regarded as the panacea for all vineyard problems. It was not clear at the time that chemicals that were perfectly safe in small doses had significant harmful effects from cumulative, long term exposure. The soil itself suffered as well, losing its vitality as witnessed in the deadening of the biodiversity in the vineyard. Wild flowers, insects, earth worms, snails and the various organisms of the vineyard ecosystem were no longer present as they were even two generations ago.

"Gran Cerdo is a great wine dedicated to the bank executives that denied loans to us on the basis that wine is not a sizeable asset. One day, these greasy and sweaty corporate suits will find that the best things in life cannot be impounded." - Written on the label of the Gran Cerdo Tinto.

Gran Cerdo Tinto from Hay Wines Ltd.