Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 39
Old Vines,
New Wines
Five Growers to Watch in Ribera del Duero
by Patricio Tapia
On the so-called milla de oro (golden mile) of Ribera del Duero, along the Ruta Nacional
122 between Peñafiel and Quintanilla de Onésimo, you'll find some of the region's most
important names: Vega Sicilia, Arzuaga, Matarromera, Alión and others that are directly
responsible for the fame of Ribera.
La milla is the backbone of Valladolid, one of the
four provinces that make up the Ribera appellation.
It is where the economic development that wine has
brought to the region is most visible. Large hotels,
ambitious restaurants, ultra-modern wineries exhibiting their avant-garde architecture and vast new
vineyards, perfectly maintained. If you have ever
been a tourist in Ribera del Duero, surely you spent
a good part of your trip in Valladolid.
However, if you leave the Ruta Nacional and enter
the narrow, winding roads through the provinces of
Burgos, Soria or Segovia, the picture changes drastically. Locals farm patches of old vines in small,
peaceful medieval villages, their houses and churches
made of limestone, the surrounding hills dotted with
caves, where peasants used to make and store their
wines, well protected from heat.
These are the towns where you'll find a new generation of producers, all of them focused on tempranillo, the region's beloved "tinto fino," while many
are also tending other varieties, often working with
vines not allowed by the Consejo Regulador. I recently
visited a number of growers and found five who are
showing a completely new side of Ribera del Duero,
with much lighter and fresher wines.
EAGLES NEST
We are with Jorge Monzón, tucked in a cave several
meters underground, a labyrinth of tunnels carved
into the rocks, full of barrels and foudres where
Monzón ages his wines for Dominio del Aguila, a
project focused on old vines in the hills surrounding
La Aguilera, a small town of less than three hundred
inhabitants, located in Burgos, in one of the highest
and coldest areas of Ribera del Duero. And we talk
about clarete.
"Clarete is Ribera's traditional wine, the light and
fresh wine that people drank for parties," Monzón
says. It's a field blend based on tinto fino, along with
vines such as bobal, garnacha or albillo, harvested
early to retain the grapes' natural acidity. "The people in La Aguilera like acidity," he adds.
Monzón was born in La Aguilera and, after studying in Burgundy and working with Bernard Noblet,
the maître de chai of the Domaine de la RomanéeConti, he returned to Ribera del Duero in 2003. He
worked at Vega Sicilia for ten years before becoming
the winemaker at Arzuaga.
Meanwhile, in 2010, he founded Dominio del Aguila, a project he owns with his wife, the architect Isabel Rodero.
Jorge Monzón and
Isabel Rodero of
Dominio del Aguila
WINE & SPIRITS
AUGUST 2018
39
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - August 2018
Contents
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 1
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 2
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 3
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 4
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 6
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