Climate, soils and grape varieties

The favourable location of Bierzo is certainly one of the relevant factors influencing the quality of the wines. A main valley with tiny lateral valleys, a very special microclimate with mild temperatures (hardly no frost with an average of 3 days per year), that helps a good and fast ripening of the indigenous grapes and early harvests.

Everything starts here to guarantee the maximum quality of the wines.

Our vineyards (around 1’000 hectares) are located in the best areas. Different soils and different altitudes to help us selecting the best grapes for each wine. Most of our vineyards are old with bush vines of Mencía of at least 40 years old. However, the trellis system (wire-trained vines) is common in younger vineyards (15 years old). The average altitude is 600 metres above sea level on steep slopes facing south with different types of soils depending on the altitude and area (slate and other minerals such as iron and quartz, gravel and pebbles with usually a clayey subsoil) and an average yield of 4’000 kg. per hectare.

Viticulture

Our priority is to apply first in the vineyards and then at the winery the most natural and respectful methods possible in order to produce wines with the true character and essence of each terroir. In order to get the maximum quality in our grapes, we combine the traditional knowledge of our growers with modern techniques, such as soil analysis and phitosanitary tests. Moreover, to get the best conditions to vinify and age our wines, we reduce the yield of our vines with green harvest and crop thinning before the veraison, we prefer traditional ploughing rather than herbicides, we minimize any spraying and try to avoid any chemicals to guarantee the maximum respect and protection to the ecosystem of our vineyards.

Plots

Since our first vinification, we have been constantly improving the knowledge and control of our vineyards. A selection of plots with different characteristics vinified separately helped us to discover the potential of each one and find exceptional vines. Outstanding plots of very old vines with extremely deep roots that force each vine to get the nutrients from the subsoil. The follow-up of each plot is decisive to study the needs of each one according to the soil and the altitude, so that a specific viticulture program may be applied. This is the key factor we most focus on, as our priority is to produce unique wines with the characteristics of each terroir to enhance the purest expression of our grapes.