This riverside wine has been dedicated to Tomás Esteban, the founder of Bodegas y Viñedos Valderiz de Roa de Duero (Burgos). The grapes for this high-level red wine (90% Tinto Fino and other native varieties co-planted in the vineyards such as Palomino, Valencian (Bobal), Garnacha or Garnacha Tintorera) are born in three small plots that were planted by the Tomás’ father, Juan Esteban Ribote, in the 40s of the last century. These are the El Abuelo, Miguelón and Matallana de Roa (Burgos) vineyards, with poor clay-calcareous soils and presence of sand. The three plots total 1.2 hectares. The yield is only 1,500 kilos of grapes per hectare.
The current general director of this family winery, Juan Esteban Cristóbal, remembers his grandfather as “a person more serious than a lock.” He adds, however, that he “was a lively and enjoyable person” thanks to the fact that he “had a good wedding and had a good dowry.” Juan Esteban Ribote’s grandchildren have grown up in the countryside, among the hawthorn trees planted by their father and grandfather. They assure that “our seed, like every great wine project, is based on viticulture.” Initially they sold their grapes to other wineries, until in 1997 they decided to make, bottle and market the wine under their brand. They affirm that “Valderiz is family, humility, honesty, simplicity and love for the land.”
Bodegas y Viñedos Valderiz is one of the precursors of organic farming in the DO Ribera del Duero. The work in the vineyards is carried out without herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers. They assure that they are committed to simplicity through ecological and biodynamic practices, and “we let the Tinto Fino grape itself offer its intrinsic virtues.” And they also affirm that “nothing is required of the grape, we let it offer us its virtues.”
Tomás Esteban’s concern for obtaining an exceptional raw material led him to invent a novel pruning and vegetation management system called ‘duck’s foot’, which is applied in some of the Valderiz plots. The technique consists of forming a glass driven vertically, in which the arms are placed in the shape of a fork and the buds are arranged at the ends. In this way, the ripening of the clusters is much more uniform and diseases of the vine wood, such as tinder (caused by fungi, which affect the wood of the vine), are prevented.
The winter of 2015 was mild, but temperatures in early spring were higher than in recent years, which accelerated the budding of the vines. In summer, however, temperatures were modest, although they increased in the second half of August. The autumn was warmer than usual, which ensured the perfect ripening of the grapes. In 2015, rainfall was below average, although it was well distributed throughout the vegetative cycle.
The berries of the Tomás Esteban 2015 are harvested by hand with small boxes. Its must ferments spontaneously with indigenous yeasts in 3,000-liter vats. Malolactic fermentation is carried out in fine-grained, medium-toasted French oak barrels. They sink the hat with their feet. It is aged for 30 months in new barrels of 225 liters capacity. Each plot is aged in expressly selected barrels. Juan Esteban reveals that “we like eternal aging,” and points out that “in these wines the tannin vibrates like the devil.” Only 3,000 bottles of this vintage were made.
Tomás Esteban 2015 has a medium-high layer and the color of cherry cherries, with the rim with tile touches. It stands out with notes of cigar box cedar and vanilla, somewhat withered rose petal, a hint of smoke, balsamic and spices and, above all, it displays licorice. All this in a bed of red and black strawberry yogurt, a sensation of good acidity and a certain tannicity already very tamed. With 15º of alcohol well integrated.
It avoids overextraction by seeking balance and elegance without giving up verticality. This village wine, from Roa, is defined by Juan Esteban as “a Ribera without makeup.” He believes that “despite being from 2015, the best in this red is still to come.” In fact, it is a wine with a great aging capacity, as shown by vintages such as 2006. It is an interesting riverside wine brought up to date. The general director of Valderiz likes to accompany it with a good Cuban cigar or with a game dish, partridge or even roe deer or wild boar. It is also ideal to pair with lamb chops with vine shoots or a good Castilian cheese.
In Valderiz they make about 400,000 bottles annually, of which they export around 50%. The United States, Germany and the Netherlands are its main international markets. Its labels are presided over by the reproduction of an iconic image by the Caldes de Montbui photographer Ramon Masats (National Photography Award in 2004). It shows a woman from Tomelloso (Ciudad Real) crouching, painting the dividing line between the floor and the lime wall of a house.
Its winery is designed to be efficient at all levels: water waste is minimized and energy self-consumption is possible thanks to the solar panels installed on its roof. Other aspects that have differentiated Valderiz from the beginning in the production of its wines, as stated by the winery, is the use of tanks made of different materials (concrete, something unusual in the area when they started) and barrels of different capacities. (large volume barrels, vats, foudres…). All of this, “always looking for wines of low extraction, elegant, silky and complex, in which the grape is the protagonist.”
They have a hundred hectares with ecological certification, divided into up to 45 small plots. Its oldest vines were planted in 1934. The vines are mainly vase-shaped and grafted from the family’s old vineyards after mass selection. They have an average of more than 2,400 annual hours of sunshine and a rainfall of 450 mm per year. In 1980 Tomás Esteban decided to dedicate himself exclusively to viticulture. Today it is the brothers Juan (responsible for the vineyard and national marketing), Ricardo (production and international sales) and Esther (quality department) who take the reins of this family project, supported by their parents Tomás and Inmaculada. They claim that “Juan and Ricardo got their teeth in the field.”
