Jose Luis Mateo (photo by Vinimenta) |
Country of Origin: Spain
Location: Monterrei
People: Jose Luis Mateo & Raul Perez, Owners & Winemakers
Quinta da Muradella, located in the town of Verín in the Monterrei DO, is a garage winery where proprietor Jose Luis Mateo and Raul Perez make small production wines from 34 unique parcels (all of them certified Organic by CRAEGA (Cjo. Regulador de Agricultura Ecológica de Galicia)). The mission of QDM is to showcase the typicity of each of the 3 different districts of this appellation (Tamaguelos, Oimbra and Pazos de Monterrei) but also to make wines that relate to the different historic periods this region has undergone since the 1800's. Since then, Monterrei has seen three faces of history in terms of varieties used for vinification. The wines made today by the local wineries no longer speak the language of the past. Due to this lost of identity, Jose Luis Mateo and Raul Perez felt the mission to recover and capture lost varieties and genetic materials facing extinction to fashion wines that once existed. In a certain way, this winery is like a liquid book of history.
Monterrei is a valley split from north to south by the Tamega river which joins the Douro river on the south over the Portuguese border. There are 3 subzones in Monterrei: Tamaguelos, located on the south near Portugal over the east side of the Tamega river. The soil profile here is quite diverse; mostly young plantings, all in double cordon trellis system at 390 m to 460 m elevation (1280 ft to 1,509 ft). 60% is red varieties and 40% white. The Oimbra subzone is located at 420 m elevation (1,378 ft) in the center of the appellation on the west side of the river. The Soil is composed of granite and decomposed granite sand. The vineyards are all tended in head pruned trellis systems and are 60 to 70 year old vines. These vines were planted during the second historic period of Monterrei. All varieties here are red. The Pazos de Monterrei subzone is located at 460 meter elevation (1,500 feet) on the north part of the region on the western side of the river. The soil is composed of clay, gravel and quartz. Young vines are tended in double cordon systems and old vines are head pruned.
"Quinta da Muradella was created in 1993 by Jose Luis Mateo with 15
hectares of owned vineyards in different zones of the Monterrei
appellation, some on the valley floor, some on the slopes and some
others in the mountain zones where some vineyards reach 100 years of
age. He works 20 different plots. All his vineyards are organically
certified. He makes a total of 40,000 bottles per year, and experiments
with different grapes, different zones, fermenting and aging vessels
(wood, stainless steel, concrete) trying to understand the region and
the grapes and what works best. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand
the process he uses to make some of the wines, and you’ll see that he
moves the wines from inox to barrel, from cement to whatever, in what
seems to be quite a complicated operation. Some things work and some
don’t. He makes varietal wines to examine the different grapes and their
potential, he tries different blends, and his ultimate idea is to
identify the ideal blend of ancient varieties, the ones that were
planted in the region before phylloxera, not only to make the wine, but
to plant those varieties already mixed in the vineyard. His collection
of wines is completely different from the rest of the wines produced in
the appellation. If you ever visit Verin, which has a beautiful old town
center and an impressive castle, you should make sure you visit the
Mateo family’s bar, A Canteira (the name comes from their father who was
a canteiro, a stone mason), where they serve their own house wine, both
white and red, made by Jose Luis. It is the best house wine I’ve ever
tried in a restaurant. The locals just don’t know how lucky they are.
About the person himself, Jose Luis Mateo is extremely humble, a quality
I find in the best people across different professions – very generous
with his time and everything else. He’s passionate about what he’s
doing, and he considers his work a long-term project to bring value and
quality to the wines of his region, “hoping that someone will take over
and continue the things that I’m doing,” he said. When I asked him what
he’d change if he could start again he was very clear. “I’d focus on the
mountain vineyards,” he told me. I asked what if it had to be somewhere
else in Galicia? “To me the place would be Ribeiro.” And now for
something completely different! Jose Luis has been making a range of
varietal red wines that he was reluctant to show, since quantities are
sometimes tiny, but I found some of them too good not to talk about
them; some are also non-DO wines declassified to the Vino de Mesa
category." - Wine Advocate 10/2013
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| Current Items from Quinta da Muradella |
| Cat # |
|
Pack-Size |
Net |
Reviews |
| 4217 |
Quinta da Muradella 2009 'Alanda' Blanco, Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$128 |
WA 90 IWC 91 |
| 5158 |
Quinta da Muradella 2010 'Alanda' Blanco, Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$144 |
|
| 7137 |
Quinta da Muradella 2012 'Alanda' Blanco, Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$144 |
|
| 5154 |
Quinta da Muradella 2008 Albarello, Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$360 |
WA 91+ |
| 6458 |
Quinta da Muradella 2008 Blanco (Dona Blanca), Gorvia, Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$216 |
IWC 93 |
| 6205 |
Quinta da Muradella 2009 Blanco (Dona Blanca), Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$300 |
|
| 6017 |
Quinta da Muradella 2009 'Alanda' Tinto, Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$144 |
IWC 92 |
| 5156 |
Quinta da Muradella 2008 'Berrande' (Mencia), Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$320 |
WA 91 |
| 6710 |
Quinta da Muradella 2009 'Berrande' (Mencia), Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$300 |
|
| 5159 |
Quinta da Muradella 2008 Tinto, Monterrei DO |
6-750 |
$320 |
WA 92 |
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