Llámalo X

Llámalo X — "call it X, call it whatever you want" — is the opening statement of José Joaquín Ballesteros Catalán, an oenologist from Villarrobledo (Albacete) with family on both sides of the craft: his father's side are vine growers on the Castilian plateau; his mother's family were tinajeros — the makers of Villarrobledo's large clay wine jars, whose vessels today serve producers like Foradori and COS. The project launched in 2021 with an explicit reversal of industry logic: recover what was being lost.

Finca Cañada del Predicador is around 15 hectares at 720–730 metres altitude on clay-limestone, sandy and stony soils, with goblet-trained vines between 30 and 90 years old. The variety roster is the real manifesto: Airén and Pardilla in white; Cencibel (a local Tempranillo clone), Monastrell, Crujidera (Moravia Dulce; the El Jaral vines grow ungrafted on their own roots) and Listán Prieto in red — the variety Spanish colonists carried to the Americas in the 16th century, today surviving on the peninsula in just a handful of vineyards. Each wine comes from a single variety and single parcel, with productions of 1,200 to 1,300 bottles.

Winemaking is minimal intervention throughout: spontaneous fermentation, gravity flow, no oak. The vessels are century-old clay tinajas from Villarrobledo — the same clay Foradori and COS seek out in Italy — inherited through the family. The Caminollano Airén Brisado Tinaja ferments for 60 days on skins; the AnceXtral is an Airén and Bobal ancestral-method clarete; the Proyecto L.P. (Listán Prieto) is the most singular bet in the range. Sobremesa named the Caminollano its wine of the week; the US importer is Polaner Selections, the portfolio that represents Foradori, COS and Radikon.