MAGNIFICENT ANCIENT-VINE GARNACHA FROM SPAIN
Sierra de los Sueños
6 bottles – £162 £102 (£17 per bottle)
12 bottles – £324 £204 (£17 per bottle)
The Scottish-born, Master of Wine and exceptional winemaker Norrel Robertson travelled the world gaining wide experience until, in 2003, he arrived in Spain and has never left. He fell in love with the ancient Garnacha bush vines of high-altitude Calatayud, searching out the owners of abandoned vineyards and rescuing them … he is a true champion.
Conditions are exceptionally hard there, the weather unforgiving and the grape yields notoriously low (hence more elderly vineyard owners are delighted to give them up!), but the wine quality from them, in Norrel’s talented hands, is a revelation. He's won many prizes for them – Top Wine of Aragón, 98 points and so much more. Discover the brilliance for yourself with this intense, sleek, bold, ancient-vine Garnacha, with its lovely lift of freshness.
"I decided to take up residence in Calatayud simply because the quality of its old vines so impressed me”
Norrel Robertson – a saviour of old vines
Visit Norrel and his family in the ancient, high vineyards of Calatayud and you could think you'd landed in a spaghetti western filmset. The land is so barren, brown and rocky, while temperatures in summer are blisteringly hot and in winter, can drop to as low as minus 18°C.
Little grows here bar a few vines, but when Norrel comes across a special patch of ancient, often abandoned vines, he becomes a detective, searching out the owners, often too old to tend them themselves, and offers to buy them. It can take months and for one special vineyard, he only just managed to seal the deal before diggers arrived to grub it all up.
Once the vines are in his possession, he works hard to nurture them back to life and flourish. But the quality of his Sierra de los Sueños – mountain of dreams – proves that it's more than worth the effort.
As a Vineyard Partner, you will...
Receive a guaranteed allocation of your chosen, exceptional wine(s) — always with its special Vineyard Partner saving. Help a vineyard or grower thrive and, in some cases, survive.
Support a great wine and its vineyard, winemaker or estate. Every one within our Vineyard Partner ‘family’ is truly exceptional and its wine is of the highest quality.
become a partner today
Sign up for an annual case of Norrel Robertson's Sierra de los Sueños and become a Vineyard Partner. You will have an allocation of this rich, vibrant, intensely flavoured old-vine Garnacha reserved for you each year, at a special Partners-only price, with no obligation. Enjoy updates from the vineyard too, plus there's an open invitation to visit – you will be warmly welcomed.
