Amigos Del Tiempo is a project born in the tiny, picturesque village of Navarrevisca which is nestled high up in the Gredos mountains of Spain. The goal of this tiny winery is to craft micro cuvées from ancient vines of Garnacha that highlight the truly special and unique terroir that this rugged, mountainous terrain has to offer. And that is…fine, beautiful, high-toned, and nuanced wines that are on the elegant, Pinot Noir end of this chameleon-like varietal in terms of expression.
To this end, the project’s viticulture and vinification is under the direction of one of Spain’s most talented and visionary winemakers, Raul Perez. The heart and soul of the project is a prized parcel called Piedra Cachada which is located at just over 1100 meters in elevation, on pure granite, with bush-pruned vines of Garnacha over 100 years old. Piedra Cachada, or “broken stones” gets its name from the bevy of large boulders strewn through the vineyard that fractured and tumbled down from the mountains above many centuries ago. Their second wine, El Morisco, comes from several parcels just outside of Navarrevisca in Villanueva de Avila at an elevation just a touch below Piedra Cachada. The vines for El Morisco are also 100+ years old and bush-pruned Garnacha.
The inaugural vintage for Amigos del Tiempo was in 2019. Given that these ancient vines do not produce much fruit, they only produced 800 bottles of each wine in this vintage. In time, they have added a few other parcels in the same area that fit the high bar for quality, and production has slowly increased a tiny bit over the subsequent years. Nonetheless, the goal is to always keep it extremely small, and the maximum, will never exceed 15,000 bottles.
All of the mountain viticulture and winemaking is managed by Raul Perez and his team. Obviously, given the reality of working these heirloom old vines, all of the vineyard work and harvesting is done by hand. The grapes are fermented with 100% whole cluster in wooden foudres and then aged for 12 months in used French oak. In general, the El Morisco is aged in 1000-liter casks and Piedra Cachada in 300-liter tonneaux.
For Raul and his partners, the name Amigos del Tiempo also has an important significance. Time or tiempo is so important in life, and yet is one of the only things that cannot be bought with money (or traded or borrowed). Time is free, but also priceless. That is why we must take advantage of time if we want to enjoy the things that surround us in life. Moreover, time, friendship, and wine are intimately linked. Wine requires many years, if not generations, for the vines to mature and produce their best grapes. Add to that the time to transform those grapes from vine to bottle, and ultimately to the table to be enjoyed with friends. And those friendships are something that also needs to be nurtured over time to be true, hopefully, shared, and commemorated over a nice glass of wine!
The amigos of this project are wine lovers, but most importantly, great friends. They share a love of wine and their goal is to make the best wine possible every year so that it can be enjoyed all over the world by all those who share their passion not only for the world of wine but specifically for the special wine that comes from this unique place called Alto Alberche.