Villaroya de la Sierra – Ia    

Cooperativa Villarroya de la Sierra, Calatayud

The origin of the name is unknown. It may have the same root as the word ‘high’. That would be fitting for vineyards that rise to over 3000 feet.

Virgen de la Sierra

‘Virgin of the Mountains’ is the name of Coop, after a thousand year old statue in the ruins of the castle brooding northwest of the village. There are 130 farmers growing 1800 acres. It sounds like a lot, but at a mere 1 1/2 tons per acre and over half of the wine sold in bulk, it isn’t that much – 75,000 cases a year.

None of the farmers makes a living solely from vines. The largest grower, with about 50 acres, supplements his income working as a mason. The President, manager and winemaker each own 30 - 40 acres and with salaries manage to get by. The rest are part-timers.

The Wines

There are only two wines called ‘IA’, although the Coop has a wider range. The basic red is pure Grenache. Cropped at 1.9 tons per acre and aged in ceramic-lined concrete, it is a Spanish Grenache classic. Strange that Grenache is the dominant grape here – we are only a few miles from Cariñena, the home of Carignan.

The other wine is a spectacular Crianza. It is aged 8 months in 2 - 4 year old American oak and gets an important year in bottle. Grenache is blended with 8% of aristocratic Tempranillo. This wine has a power and sophistication that seems impossible for the price.

This is a tough place to grow wine. The harvest is late, even in the torrid ’03 vintage it didn’t start until the last days of September. ’04 was rough here. Harvest started mid-October and lasted through mid-November. Unlike most of France and Spain, yields were low. Not everything got ripe. We have an excellent ’04 IA Garnacha, but not much of it and there will be no ’04 Crianza.