The things you love are the things you invest time in.’ That’s the motto Daniel Gómez Jiménez-Landi and Fernando García have lived by and largely explains the evolution and success of Comando G, the project they founded in 2008.
The project’s name is loaded with meaning: G stands for Garnacha, Gredos and granite, the region’s terroir- and visually defining rock; it’s also a nod to the Spanish-language version of a 1970s cartoon, Battle of the Planets, in which a team of stylishly caped heroes called G-Force (‘Comando G’) protect the Earth from alien threats.
Meaning is indeed key to understanding Comando G. There’s a programmatic, almost ideological component to the project. Landi and García’s motivations are deeply rooted in the socio-economic phenomena that led to the abandonment of old vineyards in Gredos and the lack of appreciation for the local grape and wines. Their shared accomplishment is – more than a steady output of some of Europe’s finest Garnachas – the new light shed on the uniqueness of a region and of a lost viticultural heritage.
Gaining perspective
Having grown up in a village in the Méntrida DO region, surrounded by vines, Landi describes how ‘everyone was ashamed of Garnacha’. Growers, he says, were paid ‘close to nothing’ for the fruit, all of which was sold to the cooperatives: ‘None of the wines were bottled; they were sold bulk. This was unsustainable and most people were simply forced to sell the vines in the 1970s. If you’re made to feel like a loser, how are you supposed to trust your local varieties, your traditions, your terroir?’
García and Landi met in 2005 while studying oenology and viticulture at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. ‘We first bonded over music, shared passions,’ they both recall as we’re speaking in early September when harvest is looming, keeping García in the vineyards during most of the conversation. ‘We ended most days, after studying, opening bottles, listening to music, talking all night. And then we travelled through Europe in a van.’ This discovery road trip transformed the way the pair interpreted their own country and region.
‘While travelling, and in Burgundy especially, we discovered an immense respect for all the meaning wine can have – wine as bottled landscape,’ Landi continues. ‘And that’s when we understood that we had to go back to that Garnacha from the mountains, those old forgotten vines.’
They saw the potential not only for an underestimated grape variety but also for a forgotten terroir, prey to the curse of España vacía (‘empty Spain’). ‘We felt almost an obligation to return to our roots and nurture the affection for our background, traditions and landscape. A reaction against that loss of confidence and appreciation we were raised with.’
Ploughing in the Pelito Lindo vineyard, Navahondilla. Credit Salvador Arellano
Clear vision
The pair were pragmatic when the project started, keeping it as a side gig – that drained rather than generated income – while remaining focused on other projects. Landi shared the management of his Méntrida-based family winery, Bodegas Jiménez-Landi – itself founded following the recovery of abandoned family vineyards – with his cousin; García oversaw winemaking at Bodega Marañones in Pelayos de la Presa, 15km northeast. That period of trepidation, improvisation and financial recklessness proved formative, allowing them to deepen their knowledge of Garnacha and of the Gredos terroir, and to fine-tune their shared philosophy. ‘We spent most afternoons driving around, looking for old vineyards,’ says Landi. ‘This at a time when there was little if any understanding of the [region’s] different villages and valleys. But when we came back, we had a clear vision that this was the way we had to approach our own landscape: deeply understanding terroir to produce village and vineyard wines that could convey a sense of place.’
Hard-won success
The first wines released by Comando G were received with scepticism. ‘We’d have comments like “This is a rosé, not a red”, “This is too pale”,’ says Landi. ‘The style of wines favoured [in Spain] at the time were defined by concentration – just the opposite of the freshness and finesse we were looking for.’ The challenge that they faced was therefore threefold: to come to market with an overlooked variety (Garnacha) and a different style, under a producer name no one was familiar with. ‘We definitely had to swim against the current and kick down a lot of doors.’
Abroad, however, their wines were received with surprise and excitement. Today, they rub shoulders on importer and restaurant lists with some of the most sought-after in the world. Most are sold on allocation only.
The recognition and commercial success eventually demanded and allowed Landi and García to focus solely on Comando G; both have been exclusively dedicated to the project since 2021. A team of 20 people now work the 16.3ha that yield the fruit for Comando G’s wines – a true jeweller’s work in which no compromises are made and no corners are cut.
All vineyards are painstakingly tended to by hand, ploughed by horse, soft-pruned [a relatively new technique pursued by Italian consultancy Simonit & Sirch aimed at minimising damage to vines by preserving sap flow] and farmed according to a combination of organic and biodynamic principles.
Landi and García are demure when asked whether Comando G started a movement: ‘That’s for you [journalists and critics] to say. We’re just grateful that we’re able to live from this land doing what we love. We have just worked really hard to make the wines we believe in,’ says Landi.
If I had to answer the question, I would say that Comando G has indeed played a pivotal role in Spanish wine – and in the appreciation of Garnacha – in the last decade and a half, and by a younger generation of wine lovers. At the crossroads of classicism and unpretentious cool, Landi and García have introduced a new audience – of both drinkers and collectors – to a finer side of Spanish wines. Their philosophical and personal commitment to the project (or is it a cause?) – as seen in the beautiful book the pair published in 2022, Calicata: Gredos como Terroir, edited by photographer Salvador Arellano – raised a different level of awareness and appreciation, oenological as well as social and aesthetic.
Vines and granite rock in Rumbo al Norte vineyard. Credit: Salvador Arellano
The wines of Comando G: The pyramid of Gredos
The range produced by Comando G follows a Burgundian quality pyramid, with a regional blend, La Bruja, at the bottom.
La Bruja (initially released as La Bruja Avería and later as La Bruja de Rozas) was Landi and García’s first wine, released in 2008. For those who did not believe that Spanish Garnacha could be refined and cool, La Bruja forced them to reconsider their assumptions.
Three village wines – Villanueva, Navatalgordo, Rozas – sit above La Bruja and below an impressive collection of paraje and single-parcel wines, among which the quasi-iconic El Tamboril, Las Iruelas and Rumbo al Norte.
Winemaking is consistent across the range. Hand harvest is followed by a light-touch approach in the cellar that minimises extraction and focuses on nuance. Infusion-like macerations are done with submerged caps in the fermentation vessel rather than remontage [drawing the fermenting wine from the bottom of a tank to pump it back in at the top, onto the cap]. Fermentations, reliant on natural yeasts only, happen in open vats; ageing takes place in 500L-700L French oak barrels, foudres, cement and/or clay amphorae.
All wines are bottled unfined, unfiltered, with minimum addition of sulphites. ‘Roca y aire [‘stone and air’], that’s the two words that define our wines,’ explains Landi. ‘Minerality and sense of place, on the one hand; and on the other complexity defined by lightness and subtlety.’
Spreading the benefit
Another crucial contribution of Comando G has been the confidence and sense of community provided to other winemakers, in Spain and beyond. The Fiesta de la Floración (‘Flowering Party’) the pair used to throw every spring provided an unusual and unforgettable meeting of like-minded producers, journalists and partners in crime (think Dirk Niepoort, Pepe Raventós, Pedro Parra among many others). Epic wines were tasted, achievements celebrated, challenges debated, knowledge shared. Landi performed on guitar with his band and Raventós once presented the organisers with an adorable donkey, ready to be loved and to plough Comando G’s vineyards.
It showcased a specific mindset – of collaboration and pleasure in the grit – that opened a new sense of possibility and legitimised the ambitions of aspiring producers. If Gredos is now at the forefront of Spanish modern fine wines, synonymous with some of the country’s best Garnachas, it’s thanks to the focus and commitment of Landi, García and other like-minded producers in the region.
‘We’ve given our life to this passion and this project. Our main accomplishment is being able to live here and live from this,’ says Landi. ‘[Despite all of the recognition] what makes us really proud is how we’re helping the region, an abandoned landscape that now has an example that might motivate people to return to their villages and recover their old vines.’
Commando G itself has entered a phase of consolidation. ‘We inaugurated a new winery last year [2023] and are creating a farm following regenerative agriculture to recuperate ecosystems in a more holistic way,’ says Landi.
Are there plans for expansion? ‘For us, being small is very important. We need to remain craftsmen of the vineyards,’ the pair concur, assertively. ‘It took us a lot of effort to get here – two chavales without a penny or a fancy surname. It’s good to know that we’ve made this possible. Hopefully this will inspire others and bring life to other places.’
Harvest time at Rumbo al Norte. Credit: Salvador Arellano
