The wine of the week: Dacán VC 2018 and 2019

Dacán is like a Castilian boy suffering from type 1 diabetes referred to, as a little boy, the famous Gascon musketeer D’Artagnan. This past Wednesday, June 7, he turned 9 years old. He loves the series D’artacán and the three musketeers, and also dressing up as a musketeer brandishing a wooden sword that his grandfather made for him. His mother, Clara Concejo Mir, dedicated the best wine from her riverside winery Vega Clara to him, with the aim of “putting scientists who do research to cure diabetes out of work.”

It is a wine that was created with the sole purpose of raising funds to find the definitive biological cure for the disease suffered by his son. 100% of the profits raised go to research. They are directed to projects around the world in which research is carried out to “find a cure for this sweet disease”, through the Diabetes Research Institute in Miami.

The owner of Vega Clara affirms that “private funds are needed to finance private research, since we believe that the biological cure will come from private research and its wonderful scientists, who work hard to end this childhood scourge.” She adds that “without money there is neither research nor results”. The bottle is accompanied by a booklet where it is stated that “those little-big musketeers have to know that they are not alone”, and that “we know that one day they will be cured”.

For Clara Concejo, Dacán evokes her son and “perfection”. Her inspiration has been Mario. He defines his son as “a very cheerful boy who is very similar to me, since he is stubborn and you don’t twist him.” He also adds that he “is very D’Artagnan, since he likes to defend noble and lost causes.”

Dacán VC, as Clara reveals, was born in “one of the most special vineyards I have ever seen”. It is located in a very special estate called Valtarreña, in the town of Pedrosa de Duero (Burgos). She explains that “this famous estate enjoys incredible microclimates and terroir, with a very sandy top layer and a clay layer immediately below that gives the wine a unique structure,” she explains.

It is a very old goblet vineyard, planted about 80 years ago, mostly with Tempranillo, although there are also some vines of Garnacha Peluda. Its grapes have been destined for wines from Tempos Vega Sicilia. The viticulturist of this estate let Clara Concejo choose the best plot for this solidarity red born in pure clay soils, which allows relief for the vines in the warmer years.

The 2019 vintage was qualified as excellent by the tasting committee of the DO Ribera del Duero Regulatory Council. The 2019 harvest took place with absolute normality, on usual dates, without any incident to report during the entire vegetative cycle. A slightly lower than average amount of grapes was harvested, 94.4 million kilos, of grapes of “exceptional quality”. A greater Atlantic component stood out compared to other warmer campaigns.

Instead, the 2018 vintage was rated as very good. The winter of 2018 was cold and challenging for the vine plants, reaching temperatures as low as -12ºC, continuing the low temperatures during the beginning of spring, with quite cold months of February and March. Finally, the rain made its appearance in the area, in abundant quantities, at the end of the winter and during the spring.

Thus, the outbreak occurred in a general way on the usual dates of the end of April. At the end of June, the rains finally stopped and warmer temperatures were recorded, creating ideal conditions for good fruit set and fruit set, which at that time already augured an abundant harvest. In July the temperatures were somewhat lower than usual.

During the ripening process, with very warm temperatures in September and higher than usual temperatures in October, there was a rapid evolution in the case of plants that had fewer grapes (vineyards affected by frost and those older than usual). ), and winegrowers must then wait a little longer for perfect maturation in the case of plants with higher production. The harvest campaign was longer than usual, beginning on September 17 and ending just at the end of October.

Dacán VC is Clara Concejo’s most personal project, where she has tried to invest all her enthusiasm and her vocation for wine “into something very special”. This CVC (Conjunto de Varias Cosechas) is made with fine ink (95%) and garnacha peluda, its production is around 2,000 kilos per hectare. The harvest is manual, in boxes of 12 kilos. The grapes are sorted on a sorting table. It is vinified by parcel, in a 4,000-liter stainless steel tank. Malolactic fermentation takes place in 225-litre French oak barrels, with daily punching. Aging is practiced for about 18 months in the same new French oak barrels (Allier) of fine grain and medium toasting.

Some 1,500 three-quarter-litre bottles were produced from this vintage. On its label there is a charcoal drawing representing Mario disguised as a musketeer. And inside the box that contains the bottle there is a photograph of Clara holding the hand of her blond son in a vineyard.

The last commercialized vintage of Dacán VC was 2016. In the 2017 vintage, a frost left Clara Concejo without grapes. Now a blend of two vintages (2018 and 2019) is on the market. It has a medium-high layer, a color between ruby ​​and cherry and with tinted tears.

It displays red and black fruit, and rose petals and Cuban tobacco leaf. It also shows notes reminiscent of vanilla and licorice, in a lactic bed of red and black strawberry yogurt. All this with a silky tactile sensation, with 14.5º of alcohol, with minerality and with a marked acidity that gives it tension. One of the many virtues of it is the good integration in the wine of the aging in oak.

The aromas of Dacán de Vega Clara, the winery assures, “immediately transport you to the vineyard from which it comes, a trip to a very old organically grown vineyard.” It is also noted that “respect for the plant and its terroir makes all these aromas rise to a higher level of expression, sharpness, complexity and freshness”. It is stated that its soil “has given it a muscular, fine, tasty and fresh tannin; and a great expression of the fine ink, a balance and purity that runs through the mouth from start to finish, leaving an infinite number of nuances in its wake, a wine to be tasted patiently”.

Clara Concejo likes to enjoy this red wine with a T-bone steak from Cádiz, sealed and just right. The winery recommends tasting it now or storing it, “because it will develop its full potential within the next 20 years.”

Vega Clara is a boutique winery located on the Golden Mile of the Ribera del Duero, in Quintanilla de Onésimo (Valladolid). It was founded in 2005 by Clara Concejo, almost as an act of rebellion against her father, Mario de ella. When Clara explained to her father that she had decided to make wine, “we spent almost two months without talking to each other since he didn’t find it funny at all.”

He acknowledges that “everything began with stubbornness or rebellion… or simply with a clear determination: my vocation for the countryside, for the land, to make something with my hands from what the land gives me, to take care of it with respect, as it deserves.”

And he also states that “my dream is to transfer to wine the illusion, passion, respect and admiration that I feel for the vineyard, add the creativity and effort it needs and offer wine lovers the chance to enjoy my wines like I do.” I enjoy doing them.” He remembers that a good friend told him: “get the formula that allows you to add that passion that I see in your eyes, in your wine, and you will make the best wine in the world”.

Currently, they have 14 hectares of their own vineyard of various ages (with vines planted between 10 and 100 years ago). They have fine ink but also cabernet sauvignon planted in 1969. It all started with his grandfather, who came to travel to the south of France to look for vine shoots.

They make four very different wines, all of them from a mixture of varieties, which has become their differentiating hallmark. They say that “everything worthwhile in life requires a lot of effort.”

In fact, Clara Concejo affirms that she has done literally everything: “plant, prune in winter when it is very cold, burn out pruning in spring when it is hot, be a tractor driver, bottle up to 10,000 hours, carry out endless labeling with the capricious machine that only labels when she wants, to travel halfway around the world with my wines and a smile for a hat, to go to 1,000 fairs and an infinite number of other things that we have done since that distant year, 2005, in which I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer to do what I really wanted. I wanted to do: my wine”. In 2007 she released her first wine on the market.

All this defines it as “my wonderful dream”. His project has come of age. He says that the 18 years since the founding have been “wonderful”. With his project, he says that he has created “some wines that we try to be faithful to their origin, to their terroir and respectful of their environment.” They are organic wines, although not certified.

In his winery, an evocative literary quote by Pablo Neruda has been transcribed: “wine opens the doors with amazement, and in the shelter of the months it dumps its body with its soaked red wings”.