Valdaya

Once it has begun, the dream of owning your own vineyard and producing your own wine never lets go. This is what happened to Elena Gonzales, the daughter of a winemaking family in Sotillo de la Ribera in the Ribera del Duero region. She had initially studied design, but when the opportunity arose in 2013 to hire the congenial oenologist couple Marta Ramas and Miguel Fisac, the Vadaya project was born. And they rigorously converted their parents' winery to a new way of working, i.e. an artisanal and traditional approach. It meant the end of mechanisation, and for the past 10 years, pure manual work has been the order of the day again. This begins with the harvest, and there are no longer any stainless steel tanks in the cellar; wooden barrels now dominate the scene here, where fermentation is carried out with natural yeasts. The wines are allowed to mature in barriques. The grapes come from old, 50 to 80-year-old Tempranillo vines, the noble grape variety known here as Tinta el Pais. Due to the age of the vines and the rigorous grape selection, the quantities produced here are very small. Only a tiny quantity of around 2,400 bottles of the top wine "Mirum" are filled. But Tim Atkin, someone who should know, wrote that it is "one of the best wines in Spain - not just the Ribera del Duero". And the ratings also say a lot, as they are only just behind the far more expensive icons Vega Sicioia or Dominio de Pingus.