The Cartoon Heroes, the Beer in the Tavern & the 100-Point Garnacha
Two chavales without a penny or a fancy surname who met at university in 2005, spent their afternoons driving around Gredos drinking beer with old-timers to find abandoned vineyards, and built a Burgundian pyramid of Garnacha at 1,200 metres — culminating in a wine that Robert Parker's Wine Advocate called one of the greatest in the world.
Origin — The Philosophy Student, the Forest Engineer & the Cartoon
Daniel Gómez Jiménez-Landi grew up in Méntrida, a town in the Sierra de Gredos that felt like the back of beyond — only 45 minutes from Madrid but economically forgotten, a place where young people left and old vines were left to die. His family had a winery, Bodegas Jiménez-Landi, which he helped relaunch with his cousin in 2004. But Dani had studied philosophy and humanities before oenology, and he brought a philosopher's questioning to everything. "I grew up feeling that Garnacha was worthless," he admits. The region's wine was bulk, cooperative, anonymous. The great Garnacha vineyards of Gredos were invisible to the world.
Fernando García Alonso came from a different path. He studied agronomy and phytoscience in Madrid, then fell in love with wine during 15 days harvesting with Raúl Pérez in Bierzo in 2004. He spent all his money on wine while working at Lavinia in Madrid — then one of Europe's greatest wine shops, with 4,500 labels — and later worked for Telmo Rodríguez, learning multi-regional winemaking at Pegaso in Cebreros. He spent his holidays compulsively visiting Burgundy, the Loire, the Rhône. "I was particularly obsessed by the fact that Spanish wines lacked a mineral character," he says.
The two met in 2005 at Madrid's Polytechnic University, studying viticulture and oenology together. They forged a friendship over shared bottles, shared doubts, and shared road trips. In 2008, they founded Comando G — the name a triple reference: G for Garnacha, G for Gredos, G for granite, and also a nod to the 1970s Spanish-dubbed cartoon Battle of the Planets, in which a team of caped heroes called G-Force — Comando G — protect Earth from alien threats. The metaphor was not subtle. They were two chavales without a penny or a fancy surname, and they were going to save Garnacha from extinction.
Their method for finding vineyards was equally unglamorous: they drank beer in local taverns with the village old-timers, the men who remembered where the best plots were hidden, which terraces had been abandoned, which slopes still held old vines. Slowly, over beers and patience, the old-timers shared their secrets. Dani and Fernando proved to be more than drinking buddies. They proved to be caretakers.
The Place — Granite, Altitude & the Three Valleys
The Sierra de Gredos is a mountain range just west of Madrid — a tortured landscape of alpine meadows, tumbled boulders, thick scrub, and ancient hilltop towns. It straddles three provinces, three autonomous regions, and three DOs: Vinos de Madrid, Cebreros, and Méntrida. There is no single "Gredos" appellation, which for decades meant the region had no international identity. Dani and Fernando prefer the unofficial but more honest designation: Sierra de Gredos. Their roughly 15 hectares of vineyards are scattered across three distinct valleys — Tiétar, Alto Alberche, and Alberche — at altitudes ranging from 900 to 1,200 metres, among the highest in Europe for serious winegrowing.
50 to 90+ Year-Old Bush Vines
The vines are bush-trained Garnacha, many planted between 1950 and 1963, some even older. Many are on their own rootstock. Yields are minuscule — as low as 1,500 kilograms per hectare at Rumbo al Norte. The vines grow so close together in some parcels that not even a horse can enter to plough. All work is done by hand or with horses. No tractors. No shortcuts.
Granite, Slate & Quartz
The soils are predominantly decomposed granite and quartz — sandy, free-draining, poor in organic matter. In El Tiemblo, there is slate (Las Iruelas is the only Comando G wine from slate soils). In Navatalgordo, quartz dominates, giving lower pH and a distinctive crackle. The granite is the defining element: it gives the wines their pale colour, their smoky minerality, and their ability to transmit terroir with what Luis Gutiérrez called "high fidelity."
Organic & Biodynamic
Farming is organic across the estate, biodynamic on the single-vineyard plots. Horses plough the terraces. The mild, relatively humid microclimate — for central Spain — gives a long growing season and modest alcohol levels. When a devastating hailstorm struck Las Umbrías in 2012, a weekly application of nettle preparation allowed the plants to recover, grow new leaves, and ripen grapes. "Biodynamic really works," Dani says.
The New Winery in Villanueva
In 2023, Dani and Fer inaugurated a new winery in Villanueva de Ávila — built from the same granite that forms the Sierra de Gredos, simple and practical rather than architectural statement. It sits close to Rumbo al Norte, La Breña, and Tumba del Rey Moro, eliminating the lengthy journey their Navatalgordo grapes once took across the appellation to the old cellar in Cadalso de los Vidrios. A fox wandered up to greet visitors on the first tasting day.
Winemaking — Roca y Aire
Comando G's winemaking can be summed up in two words: roca y aire — stone and air. "Minerality and sense of place, on the one hand; and on the other complexity defined by lightness and subtlety," Dani explains. Their role model is Château Rayas — not because they copy it, but because Rayas proves that 100% Garnacha, treated with sensitivity, can achieve a transparency and perfume that rivals the greatest Pinot Noirs. Their other lodestar is Burgundy — not for the grapes, but for the hierarchy: village wines, premier crus, grand crus, each expressing a specific level of terroir.
Every wine is made with 100% whole clusters. Grapes are hand-harvested into small crates and fermented with indigenous yeasts in open-top French oak casks. Extraction is minimal: foot-treading only "up to the ankles and just during the first days of maceration", followed by infusion-style maceration with submerged caps. No pumping over. No pigeage. No remontage. High technology is limited to a watering can. Macerations are long — 30 days for the entry wines, up to 70 days for the single-vineyard bottlings — protected by carbon dioxide in the later stages.
Ageing happens in 500-700 litre French oak barrels, foudres, cement tanks, and clay amphorae — never new barriques that would mask the fruit. Single-vineyard wines usually have their own dedicated vessel. Sulfur is added in small quantities at harvest and after malolactic, totalling roughly 40-50 mg/L. All wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. The result is startlingly pale, extraordinarily aromatic, and intensely flavourful — Garnacha that drinks like a cross between Chambolle-Musigny and Rayas.
Dani and Fer also monitor ripeness not by numbers but by "savoury maturation" — tasting grapes at the same time each day until they reach a point of flavour that feels right, even if the analytical data disagrees. "This is not about numbers but feelings and perceptions," Dani insists. In warm vintages, they shorten macerations to manage tannins. In cool vintages, they extend them to extract landscape and minerality. The adaptability is the point.
The Wines — The Burgundian Pyramid of Garnacha
Comando G's range follows a strict Burgundian hierarchy that has evolved over fifteen years of vineyard study. In 2024, the range was reshaped: La Bruja — the wine that started it all — was discontinued after the 2023 vintage, and El Reventón was retired after 2022. The focus is now entirely on village wines, premier crus, and grand crus. Production is decreasing as quality increases. These are some of the most sought-after wines in Spain.
La Bruja de Rozas / La Bruja
Regional wine — Sierra de Gredos (discontinued)The wine that started the revolution — first released as La Bruja Avería in 2008, then La Bruja de Rozas, finally just La Bruja. A regional blend of Garnacha from across the Tiétar Valley, primarily Rozas de Puerto Real, Cadalso, and Cenicientos. Up to 40% sourced from local growers. Fermented with whole clusters, 30-day maceration, aged in a mix of vessels. Fun, fruity, juicy — the gateway drug that forced the world to reconsider Spanish Garnacha. Around 55,000 bottles in its final vintages. Last vintage: 2023.
Rozas Village
Village wine — Rozas de Puerto RealThe successor to La Bruja and the former Rozas 1er Cru. From vineyards in and around Rozas de Puerto Real in the Tiétar Valley, at roughly 900 metres on granite soils. ~10,000 bottles, around €48. More precise and more site-specific than La Bruja — the village wine that shows the distinctive landscape of Rozas with its crisp, fresh, herbal character and the humidity of the Tiétar Valley.
Navatalgordo Village
Village wine — NavatalgordoFrom the village of Navatalgordo in the Alto Alberche valley, at an average elevation of 1,000 metres. The soils here have a distinctive quartz presence and produce wines with lower pH and a crackling, electric minerality. ~€47. A village wine of nervy tension and aromatic precision — the Alto Alberche character in its most accessible form.
Villanueva Village
Village wine — Villanueva de ÁvilaFirst released with the 2022 vintage. From vineyards around Villanueva de Ávila at an average of 1,000 metres, blending their own vineyards with supplier fruit. Less than 3,000 bottles, ~€48. This is the village that has become Comando G's centre of operations, and the wine reflects the granite purity and Atlantic freshness of the Alto Alberche's eastern edge.
La Breña 1er Cru
Premier Cru — Villanueva de ÁvilaFrom a site near Rumbo al Norte at 1,050 metres, with vines planted in 1962. Consistently produced since 2018. ~€100. A premier cru of remarkable concentration and length — the bridge between the village wines and the grand crus, showing the darker, more brooding side of Villanueva's granite before Rumbo al Norte takes it to the extreme.
Peña La Mora / Peñadelamora 1er Cru
Premier Cru — NavatalgordoThe premier cru of Navatalgordo, from the Alto Alberche valley. Set to be released under the name Peñadelamora from the 2022 vintage. Quartz-influenced soils at high altitude, giving a wine of piercing acidity, floral perfume, and a mineral backbone that seems to hum. The premier cru that proves the Alto Alberche is not just Rumbo al Norte's supporting act.
Mingogil 1er Cru
Premier Cru — Rozas de Puerto RealThe newly identified premier cru of Rozas de Puerto Real — the parcel that, once distinguished, allowed Rozas 1er Cru to be demoted to Rozas Village and La Bruja to be retired. A site of special character within the Tiétar Valley, showing a more refined, more mineral, more lifted expression of Rozas than the village wine can capture. The evolution of the pyramid in real time.
Las Umbrías
Grand Cru — Rozas de Puerto RealComando G's first single-vineyard wine, from the 2008 vintage. A half-hectare plot at the top of Monte de los Corzos at 995 metres, planted in 1951. Granite soils with some red clay. The area is particularly humid, giving a crisp, fresh, herbal style. Between 600 and 2,000 bottles depending on the vintage, ~€175. The wind influences the fragrance — "the wind helps to set the aroma," Dani says. The grand cru of the Tiétar Valley.
Rumbo al Norte
Grand Cru — NavarreviscaThe legendary vineyard. 0.3 hectares, north-facing, 1,075 metres, planted in 1950 among enormous granite boulders. Vines grow so close that not even a horse can enter in some areas. Yields barely reach 1,500 kg/ha. Harvest is almost always in October. Only 1,361 bottles and 30 magnums in the 2016 vintage — the one that received 100 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. Luis Gutiérrez: "The texture of Leroy and the intoxicating aromatics of Rayas." Sharp, Atlantic, green peppery nuances, extreme cool minerality. The most sought-after Garnacha in Spain. ~€300+.
Tumba del Rey Moro
Grand Cru — Villanueva de ÁvilaA wild, pre-phylloxera-style vineyard in Villanueva de Ávila. 0.5 hectares at 1,100 metres, planted in 1960, shaded and cool, with vines interspersed among oak, chestnut, and fig trees. The setting is almost vertical — chaotic, untamed, impossibly beautiful. Slightly herbaceous tannins and remarkable length. Probably Comando G's Garnacha with the longest finish. ~€300+. A wine that tastes like the forest it grows in.
Las Iruelas
Grand Cru — El TiembloThe only Comando G wine from slate soils. From El Tiemblo, in the Las Iruelas valley, at 1,010 metres. Barely one hectare, planted in 1963. Integrated into Comando G in 2020 after being part of Dani's now-defunct personal label. Pedro Parra's soil studies identified three distinct areas within the vineyard, now harvested separately to assess their contribution to the final blend. The slate gives a darker, more brooding, more savoury character than the granite wines — almost volcanic in its intensity. ~€195.
El Tamboril
Grand Cru — Navatalgordo (Red & White)At 1,200 metres, the highest vineyard in the Comando G stable. In Navatalgordo, with a distinctive quartz presence. The red is firm, structured, and age-worthy — a Garnacha of mountain grip and granite tension. The white is made from Garnacha Blanca and Garnacha Gris — an original departure from the region's dominant Albillo. There is also an experimental Tamboril Crianza Biológica: a Jura-inspired white aged under flor veil in demijohns, bottled in tiny quantities. The metaphysics of touch, as the back label says.
Legacy — The Heroes of Garnacha
Comando G matters because it is the single most important Garnacha project of the 21st century — not just for Spain, but for the variety globally. When Dani and Fernando started in 2008, Garnacha was a workhorse grape: overcropped, over-oaked, alcoholic, and anonymous. The Sierra de Gredos was a backwater of bulk wine and abandoned terraces. Today, thanks to their work, Gredos is spoken of in the same breath as Burgundy and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Fernando Mora MW called them "the heroes of Garnacha in Gredos." He was understating it.
Their legacy is terroir. By applying a Burgundian hierarchy to a region that had no identity, they created a language for Gredos that did not exist: village wines, premier crus, grand crus, each with a specific elevation, exposure, and soil type. They proved that Garnacha — the grape everyone dismissed as too warm, too alcoholic, too simple — could produce wines of ethereal lightness, perfume, and mineral complexity when grown at altitude on granite, handled with whole clusters, and aged in large neutral wood. The 100-point Rumbo al Norte 2016 was not a fluke. It was the inevitable result of fifteen years of obsession.
Their legacy is also community. The Fiesta de la Floración — the annual spring party they threw in the vineyards — became the most important wine event in Spain, a gathering where Dirk Niepoort, Pepe Raventós, Pedro Parra, Jean-Marc Roulot, Raphaël Bérêche, and Rajat Parr poured wines alongside Spanish producers, while Dani's band The Winedrinkers played Led Zeppelin covers and Pedro Parra played saxophone. It was not marketing. It was a mindset — of collaboration, pleasure in the grit, and the belief that wine is better when shared. Pepe Raventós once presented the organisers with a donkey, ready to plough the vineyards.
And their legacy is social. Dani and Fernando are explicit that their proudest accomplishment is not the scores or the prices or the fame. It is 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. They have inspired a generation: Aitor Paul and David Villamiel of A Pie de Tierra, Guzmán Sánchez and Bárbara Requejo of Las Pedreras, and dozens of others who followed their tyre tracks up the mountain. "We've given our life to this passion and this project," Dani says. "Our main accomplishment is being able to live here and live from this."
From two chavales drinking beer in mountain taverns to the most talked-about wine project in Europe. From a cartoon about caped heroes to a real-life rescue of a landscape. Comando G did not just make great wine. They made Garnacha matter.