Winemaker to watch: Raúl Moreno

There’s a cerebral intensity, underpinned by an electric vibrancy, to both Raúl Moreno and his work. Similarly, the unfortified wines he produces in Jerez have matter and substance, but also chiselled definition.

Back in Andalucía after three decades on an international quest of selfdiscovery, this Seville-born sommelier-now-winemaker is producing some of Spain’s most characterful and surprising wines.

But Moreno’s gentlemanly, erudite composure can be deceiving; his character and work couldn’t be further from conventional or expected – his path both unlikely and fascinating, his wines as precise as they are impossible to categorise.

Opportunities seized

Born in Seville in 1979, Moreno’s childhood and early teenage years were defined by his modest academic performance.

‘I was never a good student,’ he says. ‘And back then, if you lived in southern Spain and weren’t good at school, your options would be either the army or the kitchen.’

He chose the latter and enrolled in Seville’s hospitality school. At 18, after two years of training, he moved to London. His English was rudimentary but, with few jobs available in kitchens, he began training to become a junior sommelier at Marco Pierre White’s Mirabelle restaurant in Mayfair.

His wine knowledge flourished along with his mastery of English and he soon climbed the restaurant’s sommelier ranks.

Eventually, he was offered the chance to join the opening team at a new restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia.

Across the pond, he started the Court of Master Sommeliers training and in 2000, he realised that wine was no longer just a plan B while he waited for a good kitchen gig to present itself.

What next then? Restless, tenacious and curious, he decided on another transcontinental move, this time to Australia.

There, at 27, after five years as wine director at a leading restaurant group, he had what he describes as an ‘existential crisis’ and decided to pursue professional training in viticulture.

He eventually completed masters degrees in viticulture at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, and in wine technology and viticulture at the University of Melbourne, where he became a lecturer in sensory analysis.

Meanwhile, he also found time to complete his WSET diploma, of which he also became a teacher.

Returning home

Not one to let boredom set in, he left his teaching engagements to gain harvest experience, only to start doing up to six pickings – across both hemispheres – each vintage.

This took him from Douro, Alentejo and Burgundy to the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Swartland.

‘This gave me access to a different level of knowledge, based on real experience,’ he explains. ‘It gave me great confidence because it made me able to deal with real, extreme challenges.’

This has become instrumental in his winemaking process. ‘We have a lab at home, but I basically use it for mandatory analysis. I trust my senses above all.’

And where is home now? When Covid hit, he returned to Andalucía to support his ageing parents. His pregnant wife, and son, meanwhile, travelled to Brazil to see her family.

With borders suddenly closed, his wife wouldn’t be able to reenter Australia, so the young family settled in Jerez, where Moreno had (of course) already been involved in winemaking partnerships.

Daunted by his restlessness, Moreno’s wife challenged him to buy his first vineyard and start his own label. And so he did.

Maximum intervention

Today – while juggling consulting jobs – he works from a total of 6.5ha (his own and through partnerships with growers) planted to both expected (Palomino, Moscatel) and unlikely (Arinto, Castelão, Tintilla, Bual, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and many others) varieties.

These yield the fruit for an unusual range of wines, most produced with a combination of oxidative and biological (under flor) ageing – all technically pristine but outstandingly characterful.

Asked if his wines can be referred to as ‘natural’, Moreno pragmatically disagrees: ‘I am a “maximum intervention” winemaker. I need to intervene a lot in order not to add anything.’

Painfully self-critical, Moreno dissects his wines with ruthless precision. If something is out of balance – a mild touch of volatile acidity, say, or a whiff of reduction – he’ll be the first to mention and analyse it.

The analytical quest for technical perfection is, ultimately, what gives him the freedom and confidence to be creative and experimental. Moreno could now relax, knowing that his genius is not only obvious but has taken on material form, vintage on vintage – no longer just a potential within himself but something that’s bottled for the world to taste.

But, as his trajectory brings into sharp focus, his restlessness and urge to explore the limits of his own knowledge and technical ability will never be satisfied – to the benefit of us all.

Two to try

Raúl Moreno, La Pretensión, Vino de Pasto, Jerez, Spain 2022

95-points

Skin-macerated for three weeks and aged in Cognac barrels, this is a Moscatel like no other, with outstanding complexity and incredible aromatic detail.

Oily unctuosity wraps the nectarine, red apple, kumquat, loquat and peach fruit, with jasmine and orange blossom hovering and nutmeg, lavender and cherry leaf lining the seams.

Saline and mouthwatering, it finishes with a pleasant lingering bitterness of orange pith and cherry pits.

Drink: 2025-2028 / Alcohol: 12%

Raúl Moreno, La Femme d’Argent, Vino de Pasto, Andalucía, Spain 2022

94-points

A beautiful blend of Palomino and Syrah, aged for 10 months in oak casks under flor.

Zesty acidity, chiselled tannins and crunchy, transparent flavours of red cherry, pomegranate, black olive brine and cherry leaves, all lined by a moreish salinity.

Piercing linearity on the palate, which has a long tail of white and pink pepper. Technically a clarete (dark rosé), but it comes across like the finest of reds.

Drink: 2025-2029 / Alcohol: 12%

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