2022 Carlos Sánchez Buradòn Las Plegarias Viura

WINEMAKER: Carlos Sánchez
REGION: Rioja, SP
VARIETY: Viura
VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic

Buradon Las Plegarias, loosely ‘Here are our Prayers’ in Basque, comes from a single Viura vineyard in San Vicente de la Sonsierra planted in 1975 at around 500m absl. It’s on the Abalos side of San Vicente, where the soils are white from calcium carbonate and the resulting wines have a noticeable drop in pH and pronounced minerality. It’s captivating, complex and detailed. Salty, full of fellen pollen, chamomile and chalk. It’s lightly foot-stomped and left to macerate for 24 hours pre-fermentation before being pressed into used foudre for fermentation and 10 months ageing on lees. 1,700 bottles produced.

“Carlos Sánchez has one of the most exciting young projects in Rioja, where he started in 2019 after years of experience making small quantities of wine in the Gredos… small plots, worked organically and biodynamically…” – Luis Gutierrez

Carlos Sánchez Viticultor is a micro-domain based in Labastida. The domain consists of just 2.5 hectares of meticulously farmed old vines, spread across half a dozen sites and resulting in less than 8,000 bottles annually. Originally from the Sierra de Gredos, Carlos cut his teeth in the winemaking sense making wines under contract for various estates in Mentrida before really honing his talents with Daniel Landi. But it was Rioja, not the Gredos, that Carlos fell in love with. The Gredos is beautiful but harsh and desolate; the culture there, even now, is one of stoicism in the mountains. What Rioja had, was first and foremost vineyards with incredible potential pushed right up into the Sierra Cantabria but also the culture of a strong wine industry – great restaurants, friends, busy towns, good wine bars, sprawling wine lists, and of course an accepted and developed understanding of regional and village distinctions. In 2019, Carlos bought a small cabin in the Sierra Cantabria and started searching for special, small parcels in Rioja Alavesa while still consulting for various projects elsewhere in Spain. 

But Carlos’ journey to Rioja took a vital detour via Burgundy. Close friends with the Canadall-Jayer family, a cooperage owned by the legendary Henri Jayer’s daughter Ana and her Catalan husband, Carlos has spent much of his formative wine years staying with the family and immersing himself in Burgundy. It was this time that underwrites much of his personal project today; from the labels, a tongue in cheek play on the label of a 1962 Cros Parantoux developed with Ana Jayer, to the organisation of unique parcels, graded into Cru’s, even the vinous style of pursuing elegance and finesse. Somehow the wines seem to sit perfectly triangulated between the cool Atlantic style of modern Rioja, the wild mountainous restraint of the Sierra de Gredos and the transparency to subtle shifts in the terroir of Burgundy.