Valderiz

VALDERIZ WINERY AND VINEYARDS

“Our secret is rooted in the traditional culture of wine-making, which reveals the pleasure in the nature of terroirs and the winemaker´s personality, from harvest to bottle. We strive for simplicity in our methods by using organic and bio-dynamic techniques, thus allowing the Tinto Fino grapes themselves to reveal their virtues to us”

VINEYARDS

Today the vineyards at Bodega y Viñedos Valderiz planted by Tomás Esteban,cover 60 hectares, added to the original 10 hectares of vineyards planted by Tomas’ father, that we carefully preserve. Distributed over more than 35 plots on different soil types, the vines are pruned as traditional low “goblet” bushes. The vines were grafted with cuttings from our old family vineyards.

The family is among the pioneers of organic farming in Ribera del Duero. The complete absence of herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers is our trademark. Looking for future improvement, we are introducing biodynamic viticulture.

The typical climate is moderate to low rainfall (450mm p.a.) coupled with hot dry summers (max 40ºC) and long hard winters (min -10ºC). Added to remarkable variations in temperature in all four seasons, this should classify it as a Mediterranean climate, with over 2,400 hours of sun p.a. Importantly this interacts boldly with the fundamentally continental climate typical on this high central plateau in central Spain.

WINERY

The design of the winery seeks to achieve as natural a wine-making process as possible, so the grapes are harmed as little as possible during their transformation to wine. Their evolution is gentle with prolonged chilled maceration, without being too exacting on the grapes.

Natural yeasts on the grapes create a spontaneous fermentation. Absolutely no artificial wine-making additives (acidifiers, tannins, glucose, enzymes etc) are used. Every detail is important, from the cleanliness of our equipment to frequent tests at every production stage. Commencing three weeks before harvest with analysis of the grapes and continuing until the bottle of wine is finally served to the client.

Ageing is done in barrels selected from the best French coopers, using 80% French and 20% American oak. We monitor the quality of our barrels while our coopers make them, controlling the amount of firing each barrel receives. We match specific degrees of firing to the different soil types in our vineyards.

WINE SHOP

“The moon - rising, waxing, waning, full… this lunar cycle hides a complex tradition that has continued for years and years, passed from generation to generation”