Dynamic brothers Miguel and José Gómez Lucas were
born into a family in San Fernando which had no connections to the wine trade
and they came into it by accident. Miguel was studying at the faculty of chemistry
at Cádiz University, soon to be followed by José, when they were given a few
days of introduction to oenology. It interested them so much they later gained
degrees in it and went to work in various bodegas both in Spain and abroad. In
2009 Miguel was invited to work on a new organic wine project in Zahara de la
Sierra which came up with the wine Fine Tempo (QV).
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| Miguel (L) and Jose Gomez Lucas with a tinaja |
The brothers had long believed that Cádiz had
the potential to produce great wines from its indigenous grape varieties, and
that became the focus of their work. In 2011 they came across the Calderín del
Obispo vineyard in the pago Balbaína with Tintilla grapes for sale and they
decided to make their own wine. That first year they bought 1,500 kilos, buying
a little more each year, experimenting all the time with the vinification, and
then began buying Palomino in Chiclana in 2015. Soon they were renting
vineyards and applying biodynamic and permaculture principles, doing everything
as ecologically as possible, as healthy vines give better grapes which better
express themselves, the climate and albariza soils of the area. They also only
use natural local yeast.
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| Ladybird is proof of a healthy old vine |
Their first release was 1,000 bottles of Mahara,
made from Tintilla. They had been experimenting with oak barrels for
maturation, but felt the oak flavours masked the fresh character of the
Tintilla, and so they experimented with hand-made amphorae, and liked the
results, buying many more since. The next wine was Amorro, a red blend of
Tintilla, Tempranillo and Palomino, and then followed an Amorro white, 100%
Palomino. Currently they are working on sparkling wine made by the metodo
ancestral: fermented half in tank and half in bottle.
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| All hands on deck for the grape sorting in the new bodega |
In 2017 they finally inaugurated their own
bodega, allowing them to move out of the house! And they are now buying grapes
from a vineyard in Sanlúcar. Sales have grown substantially to some 30,000
bottles, helped by a good Parker score, and the wines are now exported to the
USA, Sweden and Britain, with France and Canada coming soon. The brothers want
to keep things sensible however, and to grow the business only as far as
quality will allow. The new bodega
is in the Fadricas industrial estate in San Fernando
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