Description
About La Maldición
La Maldician translates as the curse’ and is named after the daily grind that this region’s historical workers faced getting to and making a living off the remote, high-altitude, rocky vineyards east of Madrid. There is nothing jinxed about the wine however, which offers bags of pure, fleshy, floral-tinged, cherry/cola fruit, lined with wispy tannins and refreshing acidity. A delicious, high-grown yet generous country red and an absolute bargain as always.
When he’s not weaving his magic at Bernabeleva, Marc Isart—with his wife Carmen Pérez— tends to his small family estate, 120 kilometres away in the hills above Madrid at Arganda del Rey. We’re still in Vinos de Madrid country, with the high altitude vineyards situated within the granitic mountain chain that borders Madrid. Despite sharing a DO however, the oftendistant subzones scattered throughout these mountains can be very different. In Arganda del Rey, the granitic sands of the San Martín subzone (where Bernabeleva is based) give way to clay and limestone topsoils. With this change in soils, the varietals are typically different as well. At Bernabeleva, Isart works with old-vine Garnacha and Albillo, while at La Maldición, it’s old-vine Tempranillo for the red and Malvar, a local indigenous white variety, for the white.
Isart’s old, low-yielding bush vines lie around the small village of Valdilecha, on an estate Isart has named Maldición, or ‘the curse’. Unsurprisingly the wines are very different to those Isart crafts at Bernabeleva in the Sierra de Gredos. But, applied here, Isart’s organic viticulture, pick-on-freshness, and natural yeast, lo-fi regime still result in wines that are as juicy and fresh as they are delicious. Although, they are certainly more straight-shooting and thirst-quenching in style (a reality reflected in their pricing).
