August 26, 2025 Andrew Nightingale

CHAMPIONES!

In 2024 we collaborated with Diego Losada aka Bodega La Senda and Eighteen86 to produce our Desgracia wine. We travelled to Bierzo to blend different grape varieties and vintages together until we found a balance we were really happy with. It proved to be a huge success and everyone loved the wine which told us one thing. We had to make another!

2025 rolls round and the Arsenal Women's team went onto conquer Europe again. The wine must be dedicated to these legends. I called up Diego and told him that I would love to come back to Bierzo and create another blend with him. No persuasion necessary.

(Diego in one of his vineyards)

In April I arrived and we had a great catch up before heading to his small winery where we tried many different barrels of various grape varieties, both red and white, from the 2023 and 2024 vintages.

(Taking a sample from a barrel in order to taste and blend)

The simple process involves literally pouring a different wines into a long plastic tube and giving it a quick stir before tasting. We were honing in on something great and then suddenly both agreed we had created something reminiscent of a high quality Gamay. A Bierzo Beaujolais!

(Outside the winery blending and tasting different wines)

I drove back to Asturias airport full of life, knowing that something awesome would arrive in Highbury in a few months. The boys at Eighteen86 got busy creating a label that honoured the players and Diego figured out that he could create the perfect red and white wax top for each bottle. Everything came together and sure enough, the wine arrived in the Summer.

It's always quite a nervy experience tasting the first bottle as there is no guarantee that it will behave as you expect. It's been bottled and then shipped hundred of miles. All those movements and temperature changes make me anxious. But we sat down in the garden with a pizza and cracked open the first bottle. All that anxiety dissipated immediately . Red cherries, blackberries and subtle spice arrived first. And over time the bottle evolved with some darker, earthy notes. We were very happy.

The final blend of wine includes 7 different grape varieties; Mencia, Trousseau, Alicante Bouschet, Gran Negro, Palomino, Doña Blanca and Malvasia. Much more depth and concentration than Desgracia but still full of life and freshness. And still chillable on a warm day. We are also intrigued to see how the wine develops in bottle. Only 720 produced, all hand numbered.