Spain · La Mancha

Bodegas Cinco Leguas Sl

Small Arganda bodega making fresh, low-intervention reds and whites from Tempranillo, Malvar, and Airén in the clay hills southeast of Madrid.

The producer

Marc Isart makes wine in the Arganda subzone of the Vinos de Madrid denomination, working with old parcels across three villages: Chinchón, Belmonte de Tajo, and Colmenar de Oreja. His primary grapes are Tempranillo, labelled as Tinto Fino, and Malvar, a white variety indigenous to the Madrid zone that most producers sell in bulk or blend away. Isart uses Malvar differently: in a cross-varietal red blend with Tinto Fino, and in a skin-contact white that runs fifty days on the skins. The range divides into two lines. Maldición carries the more technically demanding winemaking. Rompecepas is lighter and built for immediate drinking. Prices across both lines stay modest.

Isart's winemaking runs counter to the extracted, heavily oaked style that defined Madrid wine through the 1990s and 2000s. Reds go through indigenous yeast fermentations, whole-cluster maceration, and long skin contact, then age in large-format used oak that adds time without adding fresh wood flavour. Whites and skin-contact wines use spontaneous fermentation and brief to extended skin time in used 300-litre French oak barrels. The Maldición Blanco, a skin-contact Malvar aged fifty days on skins, comes out burnt amber and textured in a way the grape is not supposed to be capable of. The Maldición Tinto Fino, a blend of 60 percent Tinto Fino with 40 percent Malvar, is unoaked, medium-bodied, and fresh, demonstrating what Madrid's native grapes produce when extraction and oak are removed from the equation.

Known for

Skin-contact Malvar and cross-varietal blends that push against the concentrated, oaked style that once defined Madrid wine.

Notable facts

The story

Fifty Days on Malvar

Malvar is not an aromatic grape. Every winemaker in the Arganda hills knows this, and most of them respond by selling it in bulk or blending it away without ceremony. Marc Isart's answer was to leave the skins in the tank for fifty days. The logic was direct: if the variety gives little on its own, extract everything that skin time and patience can provide. The resulting wine, Maldición Blanco, comes out burnt amber rather than the pale straw yellow expected from a Madrid white, with a depth and warmth that run against the grape's standard reputation. Fifty days is far beyond what most natural winemakers attempt on a white variety, and Isart made that commitment on a grape most of his neighbours had already written off. The colour alone, poured into a glass, announces that something unusual happened in that tank.

From the atlas

Bodegas Cinco Leguas Sl

At A Glance

Producer: Bodegas Cinco Leguas (Marc Isart) Region: Vinos de Madrid, Arganda subzone Villages: Chinchón, Belmonte de Tajo, Colmenar de Oreja Grapes: Tempranillo (Tinto Fino), Malvar, Airén, Garnacha Range: Two lines: Maldición and Rompecepas Style: Low-intervention, fresh, unoaked to lightly oaked; skin-contact whites

The Producer

Marc Isart makes wine southeast of Madrid in the Arganda subzone of the Vinos de Madrid denomination, working with Tempranillo, Malvar, Airén, and Garnacha across old parcels in three villages. The bottles divide into two lines: Maldición, which carries the more ambitious and technically demanding winemaking, and Rompecepas, lighter and built for immediate drinking.

Isart's central argument is that Madrid's continental highlands can produce wines of genuine freshness, and that Malvar, a white grape considered too neutral for serious wine, rewards long skin contact in ways that bulk winemaking never discovered. The bodega is small and the range stays focused. The wines are available through international importers and retailers.

Place

Arganda sits southeast of Madrid on clay soils under a sharp continental climate: hot summers, cold winters, and the kind of diurnal temperature shift that holds acidity in the grapes through harvest. The three villages where Isart works, Chinchón, Belmonte de Tajo, and Colmenar de Oreja, sit in rolling hill country at altitude. In the Vinos de Madrid denomination, Arganda is the easternmost and largest of the three subzones.

The name Cinco Leguas reaches back to a specific legal geography. For centuries, a royal privilege restricted wines produced within five leagues of Madrid to the capital's court, reserving a radius of rolling countryside as the crown's wine supply. Isart took that measure as the name of his project.

Soil And Site

The parcels in Chinchón, Belmonte de Tajo, and Colmenar de Oreja sit on clay soils typical of the Arganda subzone. The clay holds moisture through dry summers and slows ripening, which matters for a producer whose aim is freshness over concentration. The three-village spread gives Isart access to different vineyard sites within the subzone.

Story

Marc Isart seeks freshness and drinkability in his wines. He deliberately sources old vineyard blocks across three villages to preserve heritage vines that might otherwise fall into disrepair. He picks grapes at precise ripeness, uses indigenous yeasts, ferments whole clusters, keeps macerations long, and ages in large format used oak.

La Maldición is his most personal line. For Maldición Blanco, Marc Isart left Malvar, an aromatically neutral white grape, on its skins for fifty days. The wine comes out burnt amber from skin contact. The Rompecepas line followed as a lighter, more immediate counterpart, using some of the same grapes in a less demanding register.

Vineyards And Cellar

All reds go through indigenous yeast fermentations, whole-cluster maceration, and extended time on skins, followed by ageing in large-format used oak. The whole-cluster approach adds a herbal lift and tannin from the stems; the used oak contributes oxygen and roundness without fresh wood flavour. Long maceration on the reds extracts colour, grip, and the kind of textured mid-palate that compensates for Madrid's tendency toward forward fruit.

For whites and skin-contact wines, Isart uses spontaneous fermentation and a period of skin contact in used 300-litre French oak barrels. The Maldición Blanco runs fifty days on Malvar skins, far longer than most skin-contact whites, before ageing in bota and oak. The Rompecepas Blanco has briefer skin contact and comes out pale and herb-edged. Across the range, every cellar decision bends toward preserving freshness and avoiding the heavy extraction that once defined the appellation.

Wines

The Maldición line opens with the Maldición Blanco, a skin-contact wine from Malvar with fifty days of maceration and ageing in bota and oak. The colour is burnt amber. The grape is locally considered aromatically neutral, but fifty days of skin time changes that: the wine develops warmth and depth that run against both the variety's reputation and the usual Madrid white.

Maldición Tinto Fino is a blend of 60% Tinto Fino with 40% Malvar, aged without oak. The cross-varietal pairing is unusual: Malvar is a white grape, and its presence in a red wine lifts the colour and freshens the mid-palate. The wine is a medium-bodied red with blueberry, red berry, spice, and animal notes on the nose, fine integrated tannins, and a fresh, easy-drinking finish.

The Rompecepas line covers three bottles. Rompecepas Garnacha is a fruit-forward red with a sparkling cherry-red colour, ripe red fruits, lavender, and black tea on the nose. Rompecepas Blanco is made from Airén and Malvar, fermented spontaneously, aged in used 300-litre French oak with brief skin contact: pale straw with greenish reflections, underripe pear, honeydew melon, hay, and linden blossoms on the nose, with well-integrated acidity on the palate. Rompecepas Garnacha is lighter and more immediate; Rompecepas Blanco is textured and herb-edged, a natural wine that carries its oak contact without weight.

In The Glass

Maldición Tinto Fino opens on blueberry and red berries with a curl of spice and animal note underneath. The palate is fresh and medium-bodied, the tannins fine and fully absorbed, and the finish clean. Malvar, a white grape, pulls the colour lighter and the body leaner than Tinto Fino alone would produce, giving the wine a transparency unusual for Arganda reds.

Rompecepas Blanco rises from the glass with underripe pear, honeydew melon, and hay, then a hint of linden blossom at the edge. The palate has well-integrated acidity and a mild grip from its skin contact, with the oak present as texture rather than flavour. It is a natural wine and drinks like one: alive, slightly unresolved, interesting.

Maldición Blanco sits in a different register. The fifty days of skin contact on Malvar produces a burnt amber wine with the body and warmth the grape does not show when handled conventionally. It is the most demanding bottle in the range and the one that most clearly declares what Isart is trying to do.

A Bottle To Understand It

Maldición Tinto Fino is the right first bottle. It is a blend of 60% Tinto Fino with 40% Malvar, aged without oak, and it demonstrates the cross-varietal logic that runs through the whole bodega in a glass that is immediately accessible. The Malvar fraction keeps the body medium and the fruit transparent. The nose carries blueberry, red berries, spice, and a faint animal edge; the palate is fresh, the tannins integrated and quiet. There is no oak character to navigate and no extracted weight to push through.

Anecdote

Malvar is not an aromatic grape. Every winemaker in the Arganda hills knows this, and most of them respond by selling it in bulk or blending it away without ceremony. Marc Isart's answer was to leave the skins in the tank for fifty days. The logic was direct: if the variety gives little on its own, extract everything that skin time and patience can provide. The resulting wine, Maldición Blanco, comes out burnt amber rather than the pale straw yellow expected from a Madrid white, with a depth and warmth that run against the grape's standard reputation. Fifty days is far beyond what most natural winemakers attempt on a white variety, and Isart made that commitment on a grape most of his neighbours had already written off. The colour alone, poured into a glass, announces that something unusual happened in that tank.

Final Word

Bodegas Cinco Leguas makes low-intervention wines from Malvar and Tinto Fino. Marc Isart's bodega makes a clear argument with every bottle: Malvar and Tinto Fino, farmed in old parcels southeast of Madrid and handled with patience rather than oak and extraction, produce wines that are genuinely worth drinking. The range is small, the prices are modest, and the Maldición Tinto Fino alone is reason enough to look.

Sources

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