Conversations with… Valduero

Just last week I had an opportunity to meet with an old friend,  Roger, from Bodegas Valduero.  Roger was travelling around Ireland for a few days to raise awareness for his wine - Valduero.  The winery is based in Ribera del Duero D.O.   Ribera del Duero is the most important of Castilla y Leon’s five DO zones.  (Get to Madrid and drive north for about 2hrs).

Ribera del Duero received its D.O. status (Denominacion de Origen) in 1982.  In the early eighties Ribera del Duero was relatively unknown outside of Spain, (Rioja was still commanding all the attention).  The main grape variety in Ribera del Duero is Tempranillo,  referred to locally as ‘Tinta Fina’.

In 1983 Don Gregorio Garcia established Bodegas Valduero in the region.   It was one of the first wineries to establish itself in the region, as I write this today there are over 200 registered wineries operating in Ribera del Duero!  Certainly a lot of the new wineries to the region are benefiting from the success & prestige of the region generated by other wineries such as Vega Sicilia & Valduero.

The Valduero winemaking team is led by Yolanda Garcia Viadero, daughter of Don Gregorio.  Yolanda has been at the helm since the wineries inception back in the early 80’s.  Certainly Valduero has benefited greatly from the continuous stewardship shown by Yolanda over the last 26 years.  I tasted my first Valduero crianza back in 2003 and have been a big fan since.  The style of Valduero is very elegant, producing a fine, well structured wine with typical aromas of dark fruits, tobacco, hints of mocha and subtle earthy characters all wrapped in a refined yet impressive veil of rich oak.  I am always impressed by how ‘alive’ and fresh the wines of Valduero taste, this seems to hold true throughout the selection of wines produced.  I got to try a nice selection including a five year old crianza and a ten year old reserva, and despite their age I remarked on a couple of occasions how big, fresh and alive the fruit flavours were.  This style of wine is not simply achieved overnight.  It takes years of experience with the vines in the vineyard, some trial and error and careful nuturing to produce a harvest that achieves such powerful and memorable wines - well done Yolanda!!

Some of the main points Roger was keen to remind me of… !!

• The Bodega is situated at 840m above sealevel, making it probably the highest vineyard in Ribera del Duero.  This altitude is important as it contributes to large temperature variations between day and night, this works to stress the vine as it doesn’t have a steady temperatue to develop in.  Such stress to the vine ultimately produces fruit which will take a little longer to ripen and will have a lot more character than its rivals.
• The vines (tempranillo) planted for the red wines are trained (although they may appear hacked) into low bushes. 
• 200Ha. (Each. - hectare, is about the size of a football pitch) of these low bush vines are planted, making it the largest area of low bush vines in Spain!  The fruit is all harvested by hand into small crates to ensure that the berries do not get squashed enroute to the winery.
• The winery is still family owned and managed.

The winery reinvests heavily into their vineyards and facilities to ensure quality year after year. 

One of my own favourite features of Valduero is thier enormous winery - it’s made up of three long tunnels buried into the side of a hill. 

 

 

 

 

Each tunnel serves its own function:

1. Fermentation tunnel,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Barrel Ageing Tunnel,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Bottle Ageing Tunnel. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another update from Roger was about an additional tunnel - required to keep up with demand and addition volumes being produced at the winery now.  (Production of a white wine unique to Valduero has steadily increased over the last five years).  This new construction is to be capped with a tasting room offering a magnificant view across the vineyards of Ribera del Duero.

I had a chance to travel to the winery last summer while on holidays and took a few snaps while I was getting the grand tour.  While I was there some other keen tourists stopped by to check things out.  If you do get the chance to travel to the area it is certainly worth checking out - even ring in advance and you might be welcomed with a glass of wine!  It was early days in the holiday when I visited so I still had the enthusiasm to scribble some tasting notes - I’ll dig them out and compare to what I got to taste last week.  I’ll try get them posted later this week.

Tags: Ribera del Duero, Spain, tasting, Tempranillo, Tinto Fina, Valduero