Comando G, 2023 1er Cru | 3 Bottle Set

Variety: Garnacha

Part of the movement of winemakers in The New Spain—smaller growers looking to revive indigenous varieties and return to quality farming—the Commando G wines are among the most discussed wines at the moment. AND very difficult to come procure. Daniel Landi and Fernando Garcia started this passion project in just 2008. The wines of Comando G come from 50 to 80 year old vines in the Gredos mountains, an alpine area just outside of Madrid. Garnacha thrives there in the long growing season and the rugged terrain. Comando G is determined to bring focus back to the finesse of Garnacha, long known as the workhorse of the Spanish varieties.

When Daniel Gómez Jiménez Landi and Fernando García founded Comando G in 2008, the old Garnacha vineyards scattered through the Sierra de Gredos were hardly viewed as the foundation for some of Spain’s greatest wines. The two met while studying viticulture and enology in Madrid, then began searching the mountains for forgotten parcels, often at extreme elevations and accessible only by foot or mule. As Landi remembers, they began with little money, in an unknown region, working with a grape associated at the time with inexpensive, alcoholic wine. What they saw instead was a landscape capable of being understood almost like Burgundy: not through how long a wine spends in barrel, but through village, site and individual vineyard. Rather than Spain’s traditional Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva hierarchy, Comando G adopted the Burgundian language of Village, 1er Cru and Grand Cru, arguing that quality should be determined by the land itself. “Wine is an agricultural product and is made in the vineyard,” Landi has said. “A wine should express the soul of a vineyard.” Their own explanation of the project is even simpler: Comando G was created to make wines that reflect “the place, the landscape and the identity of our vineyards.” 

That philosophy has helped change the way the wine world looks at both Garnacha and Gredos. Decanter credits Landi and García with inspiring a generation of Spanish winemakers, putting Gredos on the fine wine map and revealing a completely different side of Garnacha, while more recently calling Comando G a Spanish producer that has achieved “cult status.” Wine Advocate’s Luis Gutiérrez has gone so far as to describe the character of Villanueva de Ávila through a Burgundian lens, calling the 2023 La Breña reminiscent of Chambolle-Musigny, a telling comparison for wines that are increasingly discussed through site and village rather than simply grape variety. For Landi, however, the philosophy remains rooted in something less hierarchical: “The things you love are the things you invest time in.” 

The wines begin with old Garnacha planted high in the Sierra de Gredos, generally on decomposed granite and sandy soils, with vineyards reaching roughly 900 to 1,200 meters. The elevation lengthens ripening and moderates the region’s warmth, while the poor granite soils and dramatic differences between villages and exposures give Comando G the raw material for its site-based hierarchy. The vineyards are farmed organically with biodynamic practices and much of the work is performed manually or with animals because of the steep, difficult terrain. 

In the cellar, the philosophy is deliberately hands-off: whole-cluster fermentation is central, native yeasts are used, extraction is gentle and élevage takes place primarily in large, neutral oak vessels rather than new barriques. Landi summarizes the approach simply: once the vineyard has delivered the best possible grapes, the cellar’s responsibility is to respect them and “do as little as possible.” The goal is not to impose a recognizable Comando G style on Garnacha, but to make the differences between villages, elevations, exposures and soils increasingly visible.

The Wines - 3 Bottle set $485

La Breña 1er Cru 2023
From Villanueva de Ávila, La Breña comes from a tiny high-altitude Garnacha site around 1,100 meters, with sandy soils derived from granite and sandstone; the 2023 La Breña 1er incorporates the fruit of the lieu-dit and was raised in large foudres, with Luis Gutiérrez highlighting the particularly gentle, fine character associated with Villanueva. 

Peña La Mora 1er Cru 2023
Peña La Mora comes from Navatalgordo, where old-vine Garnacha sits around 1,200 meters on a north-facing site of granitic sand and quartzite; it is a striking example of why Comando G’s 1er Cru designation is about a specific paraje, or place, rather than cellar treatment. 

Rozas 1er Cru 2023
Rozas 1er Cru is the step beyond their village-level wine, built from selected high-altitude Garnacha parcels around Rozas de Puerto Real on the decomposed granite soils of the Tiétar Valley, essentially functioning as Comando G’s Burgundian-inspired Premier Cru expression of the village.