D.O. RIBERA DEL DUERO
The art of winemaking in the Ribera del Duero.
The story of the Ribera del Duero has run in parallel with the union of vine and wine, the fruit of the varieties that stud its landscape, the personality of its people and their culture.
We have to go back no more than 2,000 years to find the first reference to winemaking in the zone: a Roman mosaic of 66 square metres, considered the largest piece bearing Bacchic allegories of the Peninsula, that was discovered in Baños de Valdearados during the grape harvest of 1972.
The Designation of Origin as we know it today, came out of the initiative of a series of vine-growers and winemakers wanting to improve the vineyards and wine quality of Ribera del Duero.
The first Minutes in the archives of the Regulatory Council date from 23 July 1980, from which date that Organism came into being with a provisional nature.
Two years later, on 21 July 1982, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food awarded the Designation of Origin to Ribera del Duero and approved its first Regulations.
From then, the implementation of new growing practices, the introduction of the most modern technologies into winemaking, and the rigorous control processes applied by the Regulatory Council, have made Ribera del Duero a synonym of quality.
A surprising and singular natural setting has delighted in offering us unique conditions. Unexpected and extreme contrasts that, joined to the work and skill of our people, have created an exceptional grape.
This is how the miracle happens in the Heart of the Duero. 115 kilometres of riverbank where wines as unique and inimitable as our environment are crafted.
Climatological conditions
The specific climatological conditions that characterise vine-growing in the Ribera del Duero have a great influence throughout the vegetative cycle of the vines, playing a fundamental role in the development of the plant and ripening of the grape. To a great extent, the quality of the drinks obtained depends on those special conditions.
The climate of the Ribera del Duero area is characterised in broad terms by moderate to low rainfall (400-600 mm average annual rain) that, together with its dry summers and long, rigorous winters and sudden temperature changes throughout the year, is of a Mediterranean type whose primordial feature is continentality.
Geological characteristics
The Ribera del Duero is within the great northern meseta of the Iberian Peninsula, made up of a a large, ancient plinth scored and partly covered by Tertiary sediments. Most of the volume of these sediments is made up of more or less lenticular layers of silty or clayey sand, and the alternation of layers, both of limestones and marls and even of calcareous concretions, is a notable feature.
The river basin, formed during the Miocene, displays gently rolling horizontal levels limited by differential erosion, and today converted into peneplain. The relief of the zone ranges between interfluvial zones with peaks of 911 metrres, and valleys from 750 to 850 metres in altitude.
Grape Varieties: Tempranillo, Cabernet-Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Garnacha Vieja and Albillo
The intense cold delays the budding of the vine. The sudden changes of temperature between day and night in summer yield the perfect balance for the fruit while ripening. A grape of magnificent quality is collected in autumn.
The maximum production per hectare accepted by the regulations is 7000 kilogrammes, and grapes from plots whose yields are above this authorised limit cannot be used in protected by the Ribera del Duero Denomination of Origin.
DO Ribera Del Duero has been in 2012 “THE BEST WINE REGION IN THE WORLD”
