­­Based in the medieval town of Chinchón, Marc Isart is doing great things with Malvar and Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) in the rocky highlands southeast of Madrid. Having completed his mission with Bernabeleva, Marc is now wholly focused on his family project, which he has renamed Bodegas Cinco Léguas (previously La Maldición). The new name refers to a 16th-century law that allowed any wine produced within a radius of ‘five leagues’ from the capital to be served at the court of Madrid.

Marc and wife Carmen work with 12 parcels of old-vine Malvar and Tinto Fino—specifically the Tinto de Madrid clone—spread across three villages in the Arganda subzone of the Vinos de Madrid D.O.: Chinchón, Belmonte de Tajo and Colmenar de Oreja. All the vineyards lie at 700-800 metres above sea level, benefiting from the large diurnal shifts common to the area. As you travel west from the subzone of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, granitic soils give way to clay and limestone, with a number of the Isart vineyards stained red by the high ironstone content.

“My goal is to produce grower wines,” explains Isart. “Wines that are more savoury than sweet. Wines that are hard to stop drinking.”

As you can imagine, the wines are different from those Isart crafted at Bernabeleva. Yet applied here, Isart’s precise organic viticulture, pick-on-freshness approach and artisanal winemaking techniques result in wines that are as juicy and fresh as they are delicious.

The vines are organically or biodynamically raised and the grapes harvested by hand. The Malvar whites are drawn from varied sites and are crafted in a range of vessels, including concrete, amphora and neutral oak. Malvar (aka Lairén, and not to be confused with the ubiquitous Airén grape) is a variety that tends to give wines with good acidity and aromas of citrus and bitter almonds. Isart's interpretations each offer a variation on a theme of mouthcoating texture fused with deep citrus and mineral vibrancy. All the whites see a measure of skin contact, reflecting the traditional techniques used by Spanish farmers in this part of Spain.

In a region where many reds are made for impact, the wines of Cinco Léguas offer a refreshing distraction. His Tinto Fino is a wine bar-friendly blend of 80% mature-vine Tempranillo complemented by local white grape Malvar, which brings lip-smacking freshness. Isart’s Rompecepas is an old-vine varietal Tinto Fino: entirely destemmed and aged in used 500-litre oak barrels, it is a deeper and more mouth-filling expression of the high-country vineyards east of Madrid.