Carlos Sánchez Buradòn Las Plegarias

As the African proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together”. This is what the winemakers Nacho Jiménez, Javier García and Carlos Sánchez did. They joined forces to create the 3 Viñerones project and have managed to do everything they set out to do. However, there is always room for each of them to dream and come up with more personal projects, like the one started by Carlos Sanchez.

Now this professor, who ended up dedicating himself to the world of wine, is going alone from the Sierra de Gredos (Madrid) to La Rioja Alta, specifically to San Vicente de la Sonsierra, to make his own wines, with a much more personal approach. Carlos Sánchez Buradòn Las Plegarias is part of this collection, where there is room for different varieties.

Carlos Sánchez Buradòn Las Plegarias started life in La Rad, the only plot that Carlos Sánchez owns in this area, where clay-limestone soils abound, with stones on the surface. This land, where the vines grow at an altitude of over 400 metres, is also very close to La Bastida, the other village where Carlos uses the cooperative’s facilities to process the grapes (you read that right, Carlos Sánchez does not currently have his own winery). After all, all these places are familiar and well known to Carlos, where he spent his childhood summers with his family.

Carlos Sánchez Buradòn Las Plegarias, which ferments in foudres and barrels, not only showcases the most intimate side of this winemaker, but it is also a good exercise in seeing the differences between this Garnacha, grown in La Rioja Alta and the Garnacha that Carlos Sánchez gets in the Sierra de Gredos, where he began his winemaking. This variety, which is one of the most widely planted in Spain, reveals very different nuances to what is customary in this area: while most Rioja reds have body and weight in the mouth, Carlos Sánchez Buradón Garnacha is lighter and smoother, more similar to the Garnacha of the Sierra de Gredos (where granitic soils abound).

As mentioned above, Carlos Sánchez Buradòn Las Plegarias ferments in foudres and barrels (600 and 500 litres respectively). Before that, it undergoes minimal treatment, it is not even destemmed. It is then macerated for a month in these same wooden tanks until it is finally bottled, without filtering or stabilisation. La Rioja and its flavour may already be well known.

We don’t think this will be the first one you’ve tried. But it is no bad thing to rediscover this area of northeastern Spain through the eyes of Carlos Sanchez. We can assure you that Carlos Sánchez Buradòn Las Plegarias will not disappoint.