Cooper, originally from Santa Bárbara (California), discovered Spanish wines when he was only 21 years old, on one of the trips he made to Europe with his family. Since then, his personal and professional career has been closely linked to Spain, where he has lived for more than a decade. His first experiences as a professional in the world of wine were as a writer for the Spanish Wines and More blog, from which he advised many amateurs.
As a producer, Cooper has worked in several Aragonese wine regions such as Campo de Borja, Somontano, Calatayud and especially Cariñena, located just 20 minutes from Zaragoza, the city where he lives. Precisely in Cariñena is where he develops his project Vinos del Viento, a name that comes from one of the most typical meteorological accidents in the area: the strong wind that can frequently reach 50 kilometers per hour.
Since 2009 and more continuously since 2013, Michael Cooper has his work epicenter as a vigneron in the Zaragoza town of Aguarón, where he works with the Garnacha blanca, Garnacha red, Chardonnay and Cariñena varieties. Of this last variety, he has a vineyard of 3,000 vines (about 2 hectares), with which he makes Cariñena Selección Especial, one of the first Cariñena monovarietals made commercially in the area, presented at the Vignerons Club of BODEBOCA in November of 2016.
To make his wines, Michael uses the facilities of friendly wineries, such as Jordán de Asso or Quinta Mazuela . And is that Cooper, despite not being a trained winemaker, has a quality that he himself considers essential in any good winemaker worth its salt: "a good palate".
The person in charge of Vinos del Viento also knows other facets of wine, since he also performs commercial tasks and teaches wine and tasting courses. His philosophy as a producer is to make different wines, with their own personality and capable of expressing the identity of the region through its mesoclimates, soils, varieties and autochthonous yeasts.
Here are the three little things that makes Vinos del Viento special
- Indigenous Varietals - Aragón and Spain are the origin of the Garnacha (Grenache) and Cariñena (Carignan) grape varieties and they feel fortunate to be able to use these grapes in their wines and strive to express their true and pure essence.
- Amazing Vineyards - Michael Cooper is a “Vine Hunter” and has searched out high altitude, old-vines and dry-farmed vineyards. Their unique microclimates and indigenous century-old clone strands make some of the most original wines in the world.
- Sustainability & Winegrowing - They are aware of the importance of the biodiversity of the soils and water use, that’s why the team prefers dry-farming, don’t use pesticides and use locally fabricated lightweight bottles made from recycled materials.
