Preserving Spain's Classic Wines and Terroirs

A Valencian who adopted California as his home, José Pastor is a tireless advocate of handcrafted wines made from Spain’s indigenous grape varieties in classic and up-and-coming regions. He has cornered the market on fine wines from the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago seventy miles off the Moroccan coast, where wine has been grown for more than five hundred years. He has helped resurrect the red wines of Galicia and offered a window into what terroir driven wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero could taste like. In a country that has no shortage of wines that are robust and modern, José Pastor Selections is the source for wines from organic vineyards that favor the use of indigenous yeast and minimum filtration. A great introduction to his portfolio is the Frontón de Oro Gran Canaria, a Canary Island red made from tintilia, a local variety cultivated on terraced slopes. The wine’s fresh red fruit, delicate floral aromas and hints of white pepper evoke the sense of dusk in a Mediterranean garden.