It comes from the greyhound breed. This very Spanish expression could well serve to illustrate the still short life and work of Jesús David Alcolea Medina or Jesús Malaño (Socuéllamos, Ciudad Real, 1998)by the nickname with which they know their family in their city and now their creations. It is there, in the heart of the region of La Mancha, that this 26-year-old grew up among the vineyards and has today transformed his dream into reality with his own winery and more than 150 hectares of vines for no less than 25 years. old, being the fifth generation of a saga of winegrowers.
And, as the saying goes, Jesus’ thing was to arrive and embrace the saint because, although he has only been with his family project for a year, the Bodegas y Viñedos Wine Inn, as it is called, is beginning to reap fruits in the form of recognition. What this wine alchemist has achieved above all by sublimating the Airén grape variety, originally from La Mancha. Proof of this is, for example, the 94 points recently obtained by its Airén Asolado wine in the prestigious Peñín Guidea score so high that a wine made with this grape variety had never obtained before.
All this is not a flower of the day – to use the proverb – because Jesus, despite his young age, has a vast experience. In 2014, he began his studies until his graduation in 2022. degree in oenology from the University of Cadiz and, after having produced wines in designations of origin as diverse as Ribeiro, Ribera del Júcar and La ManchaIn 2023, he released his first vintage of bottled wines with the revolutionary name “Malaño” in homage to the five generations of his family who worked the land.
“Bad years, good wines.” It is another expression that, in addition to giving a name to his family and his wines, as David explains to ABC, is “a sign of respect for our origins, the past and tradition, so important to us, that they have become the basis of the philosophy with which we make all our wines today.
Something they do “at the slightest intervention“, emphasizes the young winemaker, who affirms that his objective is to avoid the use of any exogenous product – acids, enzymes, nutrients or others -, in addition to oenological techniques such as dynamic settling, centrifugation or filtrations that can dilute or denature the very essence of the grape.
“That is to say, we apply the “conscious oenology” typical of its Inn Wine philosophy, a term we created to raise awareness that great wines can be made based on knowledge and leaving aside what is superfluous and unnecessary.” he says.
And once the grapes have been pampered and selected in the smallest details, with constant tastings, that’s when the alchemy of Jesus comes in. This precocious wine master gives free rein to his imagination, making preparations that range from pre-fermentation macerations of up to 96 hours, to post-fermentations of one or more weeks, to fermentations in open barrels, to aging on lees in barrels, to the commitment to Spain. oak, exposure to the sun for more than 30 days, carbonic macerations, aging in barrels soaked in sherry wines, …
A technique, the latter, that he brought from his experience in Cadiz and which led him last year to acquire those Sherry casks that have been containing Amontillado wine for over 50 years and come from the century-old solera of Bodegas Fundadorwhere he currently works as a winemaker in the distillery they own in Tomelloso.
It is with all these wicks that the manager of this winery in Socuellamina wants to remove from La Mancha the reputation of being a land of poor quality wines and large productions. Which they want to achieve by also giving the place they deserve to the Airén grape variety, the Manchega grape variety par excellence, although they also work with other grape varieties, both white and red.
“Airén is a neutral variety and, from there, you can’t ask for a lot of tropical fruits or certain aromas, but it is true that it does very well in all the preparations you make with it. That is to say, it is like a diary of what you have done in the winery and, in addition, it has enormous untapped oenological potential”, emphasizes Jesús Malaño. It will be worth paying attention to.
