We had heard the expression ‘interpreting the vineyard’ a thousand times, and now, with Abel Mendoza’s 52–60 wine design, we truly understand its meaning.
The place creates the grape and the wine, while the winegrower is essential for reading nature’s score and sculpting with it an expression of their own to the rhythm of the vineyard. Paused, deep and serene, like the tempo of a classical adagio.
At 52–60 wine, Abel Mendoza and Maite Fernández perform several plots that are almost 100 years old in the Mondiate area of Labastida, a small village in Rioja DOCa (Spain). Small vineyards where the ancient culture of cultivation, observation and life merges with the reddish sandstone soils.
In another feature of inherited and preserved agricultural tradition, this vineyard is characterized by its diversity. Tempranillo, Graciano, red and white Garnacha, Viura, Malvasía grapes… All the bunches are harvested together, separated grape by grape, and the grapes are processed at the same time. The land dictates the rules and limits production—in this first vintage, 2021, just under 1,400 bottles.
The label reflects the slow and leisurely rhythm of this piece of music, playing between the visible and the invisible. The bass-relief stave and the numbers marking the tempo dominates the label. Abel Mendoza’s calligraphic mark signs this wine, evoking the artisan character with which it is made.
The land and its winegrowers, united by a philosophy of respect and time. These notes come together to create something unique, a story of the past and present, a wine that is felt with the soul, the intellect and the whole body.
Source: Moruba
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