Albyreal 2021

“Alumbrar” means, in Castilian Spanish, the act of increasing the sunlight exposure a plant receives by digging a small hollow around the base of the vine. In other words: to give the vine light. This is one of several viticultural techniques used by Juanjo Moreno — together with his wife Maribel and his son Abel — at Microbodega del Alumbro, a 4.5-hectare property in Villamor de los Escuderos, in the Bajo Duero region. An hour's drive from Portugal, half an hour from Zamora and another half hour from Salamanca, the property sits in territory practically unknown to the natural wine world, not least because the policy of large landholdings, heavily encouraged and promoted by the European Union, is strongly felt in this area.

The priority the Moreno family has given, over the past 25 years, to the natural pulse of the land and the elements makes this project a true oasis in the region. Juanjo always practised subsistence farming based on sustainability, and so when he decided to make wine, he did so in an ecologically responsible way right from his first harvest in 2009. A short while later, through contacts with other producers, he learned about the concept of “natural wine”, which left him truly astonished, as he realised this was precisely the philosophy that had always guided his work in the vineyard. It was in this spirit that he contacted Isabelle Legeron, travelling to London to present his wines to the natural wine world.

Until then, the only oenological product he used was the addition of 10 mg of sulphur dioxide per hectolitre, and although he believes the question of whether or not to add sulphur is a reductive way of defining the concept of natural wine — given the huge array of additives that can legally be mixed into wine and that are far more dangerous to human health — he decided to give up even the small amount of sulphur he used. So, since the 2013 harvest, the roughly 13,000 bottles he produces each year contain no chemical product whatsoever.

For Juanjo, natural wine is made in the vineyard, which must not be pampered, but must also not be mistreated. And it's really in the work of the vineyard that he feels happiest. In the winery, intuition is his source of inspiration. He even gave up using barrels altogether, having found they contributed to volatile acidity and off-putting aromas, and now vinifies in stainless steel vats and clay amphorae instead.