Kiko Calvo

Native of Toro, Kiko was always thrown back by the idea of how everybody in his region thought they made the best wine in the world without knowing what the rest of the world was doing. It was like they lived in their own little bubble where their wine ruled. As somewhat of a rebel or bigardo, he was ready to travel and work around the world before returning home and making wine of his own. From 2011 to 2015, he worked two harvests a year between both hemispheres (France, California, Australia, Chile, Argentina, and various regions of Spain). For this reason, he calls Bigardo an experimental wine, gathering his experiences from around the world and capturing them in a bottle.

In 2014, he made his first 2000 bottles of Bigardo, but it wasn’t until 2015 that he returned and fully immersed himself in his family’s 20h estate, increasing production to about 10,000 bottles. The farming is done organically, or as Kiko calls it, logically. Any other way just wouldn’t make sense in a region where organic farming is so easy, given the arid climate. A first selection is done in the vineyard, and the guidelines for harvest are easy: don’t cut fruit you wouldn’t eat. The beauty of owning such an extensive estate is that he gets to keep the best fruit from his favorite vineyards while the rest is sold, as his family has always done. Most of the fruit comes from his Valdefinjas and Los Llanos vineyards, both of which are inside the Toro D.O., between 600 and 750 meters of altitude and ranging anywhere from 20 to 100 years of age. Composed of sandy soils, his vineyards are 100% own-rooted Tinta de Toro, which, according to Toresanos, is not Tempranillo (very important). After a second selection in the cellar, each parcel is fermented separately in old barrels and aged for about 5 to 6 months. Everything in the cellar, from racking to bottling is done by gravity. Kiko is a strong believer in the #nopump movement.

Truth be told, Bigardo is not your typical Toro. It’s not as extracted or as dark in color, and it drinks fresher than anything we’ve ever had from the region. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a big wine, but not for Toro standards. Actually, Toro is a region that always scared us a bit for those reasons. Who would have thought Toro could have this tact? Not us…until we got a taste of the horns, of course!