Hammeken Cellars

At A Glance

Field: Detail
Producer: Hammeken Cellars
Country: Spain
Scope: 18 Spanish appellations and 20 wine brands
Named grapes: Tempranillo, Garnacha, Bobal and Viura
Wine styles: Rosé, red, white and orange wine
Named rosé: Ecologica Girasol Rosé
Approach: Spanish grape varieties and traditions with New World winemaking techniques

The Producer

Spanish grape varieties meet New World winemaking techniques at Hammeken Cellars. Its named range includes Ecologica Girasol Rosé, Albades Garnacha, Palacio de Caterina Tempranillo, Albades Garnacha Blanca Viura and Nanit Orange, covering rosé, red, white and orange styles.

Place

The wines carry two appellation names. VdlT Castilla appears on Ecologica Girasol Rosé, Palacio de Caterina Tempranillo and Nanit Orange. Cariñena appears on Albades Garnacha and Albades Garnacha Blanca Viura. The range is divided by label: rosé, Tempranillo and orange under VdlT Castilla, Garnacha red and Garnacha Blanca Viura white under Cariñena.

Story

Nicholas Hammeken has dedicated his career and life to wine. Since 2020, Hammeken Cellars has planted 615,000 trees through a sustainability program. The company combines Spanish grape varieties and traditions with New World winemaking techniques, and the named wines span rosé, red, white and orange styles.

Vineyards And Cellar

Ecologica Girasol Rosé undergoes cold maceration for twelve to fourteen hours before fermentation. The low temperature and short contact draw colour and aroma from the skins for a rosé style. Nanit Orange takes a different route: green grapes are vinified in the manner of red wine, with a period of skin contact, then aged on lees. Skin contact can bring colour and tannin, while lees ageing can add roundness as the wine rests with spent yeast cells.

Wines

Ecologica Girasol Rosé is the blended rosé, with 75% Tempranillo, 15% Garnacha and 10% Bobal. Albades Garnacha and Palacio de Caterina Tempranillo occupy the red wine part of the range. Albades Garnacha Blanca Viura is the white wine, while Nanit Orange is the orange wine. The bottles move from a grape blend to red and white wines named for their grapes, then to a skin contact wine.

In The Glass

Ecologica Girasol Rosé is dry, generous in fruit, and lifted by lively acidity. Peach and watermelon lead the flavour. Albades Garnacha brings raspberries, plums and licorice. Albades Garnacha de Montaña is red with a violet rim, showing intense red fruit with mountain herbs and spices, a mineral touch and very soft tannins. Albades Garnacha Blanca Viura is fruity, youthful and very fresh, with green apples, pears and lime. Nanit Orange has aromas of citrus and mineral with herbal and tea notes. Its palate has good acidity and medium body with subtle tannins, followed by apricot, mimosa flowers, melon, honey, sea buckthorn, white pepper and mandarin.

A Bottle To Understand It

Ecologica Girasol Rosé is the first bottle to open. It carries VdlT Castilla and combines Tempranillo, Garnacha and Bobal in a rosé with a blood grapefruit note. Cold maceration and the grape blend put local Spanish traditions and New World winemaking technique on one label.

Anecdote

In 1996, Nicholas Hammeken founded Hammeken Cellars as a wine trader after early work in wine sales and marketing across France, Germany and the United Kingdom. His early interest in wine had become a career devoted to the subject, and the trading business came first. In 2001, he moved into branded production with Montgó, the company's first wine. The change put a named Hammeken wine into production after the company had begun by trading wine. Montgó was the first bottle of that branded range.

Final Word

Hammeken Cellars combines Spanish grape varieties and traditions with VdlT Castilla and Cariñena wines across rosé, red, white and orange styles.

At A Glance

The Producer

Place

Story

Vineyards And Cellar

Wines

In The Glass

A Bottle To Understand It

Anecdote

Final Word

Sources

Where to go next