Comando G & Fedellos - Ethereal Delights
Comando G is single-handedly redefining the Spanish wine scene. Comando G are responsible for the re-discovery of Sierra de Gredos (1.5 hours west of Madrid) and the arid, granite-based hills that are home to some very old Garnacha vines. In many ways, winemakers Dani and Fer are partially responsible for the rise and rise of Grenache around the world, with Comando G now one of the reference-point producers for modern-day Grenache in its most elegant and ethereal form. FWC
After a decade of evolution the Fedellos aren’t quite the young brats or punks they once were. The personnel changes, the vineyard selection and wine making have all been honed over the years and the results are incredibly polished and fine. Yet the core principles remain, these are organically and biodynamically farmed wines made with minimal interventionist principles and minimal sulphur. They are above all wines of a place, that speak of the cooler, mountainous edges of Galicia. Lachlan Barber, Importer
Comando G 'La Bruja' Garnacha 2023
This is certainly the best release of this wine in a number of years. It makes sense too: the Comando guys are looking to make this wine a touch more serious, and have been a bit more selective with their fruit sources. They're also making much less of it going forward. Here you can expect an array of flavours from Aperol and Campari, dried orange peel, cranberry and dried red petal. It's very light in colour, but not short on flavour. A beautiful wine. - Ches Cook, Five Way Cellars.
The regional red 2023 La Bruja is now 100% from Cebreros, no more from Madrid; so, they produced fewer bottles, and there will be even less in 2024 (20,000 bottles). It's like a meatier, juicier version of the 2021 and is less reductive but still stony and fine-boned. It has good ripeness and development of aromas and flavors and is floral, clean, red fruited and herbal, with 14% alcohol and very good freshness and acidity, coming through as balanced and elegant. 40,943 bottles and 500 magnums produced. It was bottled in August 2024. 95 points, drink 2024-2032, Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate.
Comando G 'Rozas' Garnacha 2023
The 2023 Rozas village from Rozas de Puerto Real comes from different vineyards (five) totaling five hectares on granite soils at an average altitude of 900 meters. It's juicy and has notes of pomegranate and strawberry and the powdery texture akin to chalk. It's clean and tasty. 11,298 bottles produced. It was bottled in August 2024. There will also be a 1er Cru (a selection of the best two vineyards) in 2023 that I should taste next year. 95 points, drink 2024-2032, Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate, Nov 2024.
Fedellos ‘Conasbrancas’ Blanco 2022
The cloudy, barrel fermented and aged white 2022 Conasbrancas was produced with the grapes from a number of field blends on both sides of the Bibei River, in Manzaneda and Larouco. It feels quite wild and raw but graceful and stylized. In 2021, they changed they as they produce this wine; they do a short maceration, and after three or four days, they press and ferment. This year, it’s unusally cloudy because it was a year with lots of protein and they do not filter or clarify. But the wine is serious and vibrant, medium bodied with a moderate 12% alcohol, with very good freshness and great balance, despite coming from a very dry (more than warm) year, with a very short harvesting window. It feels quite different from previous years and they feel it shows more the character; it has. an austere stony sensation in the palate, naked, without the influence from the skins, keeping the verticality. Delicious and characterful. 94 points, Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate, Nov 2023.
Fedellos Bastarda 2022
I tasted the very young and recently bottles 2022 Bastarda, which was produced like all previous vintages, with full clusters and indigenous yeasts, a long maceration and an elevage of eight months in used 500-litre French oak barrels. Bastarda (aka Merenzao or Trousseau) tends show more varietal in warmer years like 2022 (or 2020) but it’s still pale and delicate. They picked the grapes quite early that year. 5,000 bottles were filled in May 2023. 95 points, Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate, Nov 2023.
