The UnCorker

Weird Wine of the Week: 2004 Anima Negra ‘An’ Mallorca

Here we have a wine that has been so successful at clawing it’s way out of weirdness status, that it’s tempting to think of it as normal. We refer, of course, to the stellar reputation, wide (ish) distribution, abundant good press, and all around Parker-y goodness that rains down on the folks at Anima Negra. But people, let’s do a reality check here! First of all, the wine is from Mallorca – a now swank and touristy island off the coast of Spain where it’s easier to catch a glimpse of Catherine Zeta Jones than it is to find yourself a glass of truly great vino (at least that’s exported). Second of all, the wine is made almost exclusively from an heirloom, indigenous grape varietal that grows only on this surprisingly fertile rock out in the Balearic chain of islands -Callet – which is in itself, a pretty weird product of Mother Nature’s imagination. Thirdly, the winemaker manages to capture the one-off, outsized personality of this place in the bottle in a way that his Catalan neighbors on the mainland – even those in Priorat – are rightly jealous of. Oh, and did we mention that this stuff’s made by a trio of young bucks with a real commitment to naturalistic minimalism – something that is still rare in Spanish winemaking?

There are only two viticultural appellations on the island of Mallorca, D.O. Binissalem Mallorca and D.O. Plà (Pla i Levant), and AN is not in either one of them. This winery was started on a shoestring in 1994, when Cabernet Savignon was in fashion amongst the Priorat set (and Priorat was where winemaker Francesc Grimalt cut his teeth). Callet grapes were easy to find and cheap on the island, but it took courage to think about using them. The winemakers wanted old vines and something expressive of the local terroir, however, so they were determined to work with it. Long cultivated throughout Mallorca, Callet took a back seat to it’s more stately indigineous counterpart, Manto Negro. It’s a problematic grape to vinify, with it’s weak color, low acidity and sugar. Coaxing an extracted flavor-bomb out of this stuff is no small feat. And since most Callet vines are left to reproduce sexually on Majorca, not clonally (which is weird enough in this day and age) there are 1000s of strains of the grape – making the winemakers job that much more difficult. There wasn’t a whole lot of knowledge of the varietal in oenological circles when these guys started – and they’ve done a lot of experimenting with long macerations and extended exposure to oxygen. In fact, this very bottle went back into the cement tanks after it’s time in barriques for two months prior to bottling. They had been gradually upping the percentage of the Callet used in their wines until 1999, when they managed to pull off a 100% Callet. (The 2004 is 95% Callet- buttressed with 5% Manto Negro and Fogoneu.)

Since the days of the vagabonding Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder, Mallorcan wines have been compared to those of Italy rather than Spain. The analogy holds – this is like something excellent from you might find by a careful Italian winemaker working with indiginous grapes, such as Sicily’s Arianna Occhipinti. The wine is medium weight, and the light that filters through it betrays the potent concentration of flavor. Lifted, bright red fruit qualities on the nose. Lingering finish with vanilla, wild spicy notes. Firm acidity combined with integrated tannins means this lively, finessed wine pairs with almost anything. It’s $45 to go for the full weirdness of the AN (with it’s high percentage of Callet), but you can drink the excellent AN/2 – which is blended with a substantial amount of Syrah but still feels wild and unique – for about half of that.