Gallinas Y Focas 2012 75cl

nice, charity wine initiative for the Fundación Amadip Esment (for handicapped people), the 2012 Gallinas y Focas has increased the amount of Manto Negro, a variety from the north of the island, and in this vintage contains no more than 10% Syrah. The whole berries fermented in 40,000-liter oak vats with some 30% of the foudre fermented in 500-liter barrels with the lees, in a reductive atmosphere. It is then aged for one year in barrels and a half-year in the vat and bottled with very low sulfur. Manto Negro is a grape with very little color that translates into the wine with a slightly volatile nose showing hints of spices, leather and a mixture of red and black berry fruit that have a slight earthy, organic side. The palate is medium-bodied and a little austere with an elegant and fresh texture halfway between a Côte de Nuits and a Northern Rhône Syrah. It develops licorice, fennel and aniseed notes with time in the glass. It is a wine of character that would please the more conventional consumers as well as more audacious ones. 25,000 bottles were produced. In the old currency, one million pesetas in 1,000 peseta notes weighted one kilo, so one kilo was slang for one million. Francesc Grimalt and Sergio Caballero, Grimalt was the winemaker at Ànima Negra where he was responsible of the rebirth of the local Callet grape, and Caballero is a musician, founded 4 Kilos (Four Kilos or Cuatro Kilos) with four million pesetas (24,000 euros!) back in August 2006. That year they fermented their first wine in a friend's garage using stainless-steel tanks that were used for milk. They work with local grape growers and organically farm no less than 15 separate vineyards on different villages planted with different grapes on different soils. They have come a long way since the beginning, and their last project has been working together with the Excell laboratories to recover the old yeast from the cooperative in Felanitx, their village. Their average yearly production is 67,000 bottles. I see fresher, more racial and character-filled wines here compared with the ones they produced in the beginning.