Ribera del Duero Annual Tasting Report: Flipping the Script on Convention (Part IV)
And in the easternmost part of Ribera del Duero, the old vines of Soria, set at elevation and enjoying a cool climate, are helping redefine what a drinkable wine can be.
“If we say the soil gives form or the body to the wine, then the climate will dress it up in an outfit, and here in Soria it is the climate that makes [a wine] unique,” said Frenchman BERTRAND SOURDAIS, one of the pioneering winemakers in the village of Atauta, to which he was introduced by the renowned Spanish enologist/winemaker Alvaro Palacios.
Sourdais said that when he started making wines in Soria in 2000 as one of the founders and winemaker for Bodegas Dominio de Atauta, S.L., “everyone thought I was out of my mind,” to think he could be successful in making wines in such a cold region, where temperatures can swing from 25-30 degrees Celsius during the day to 4-6 Celsius at night. But today, he said, “everyone is coming to Soria for the new, fresh possibilities,” adding that he was untroubled by newcomers to Soria, which he views as an untapped, virgin land that easily accommodates the 19 wineries that cultivate just five percent of the vineyards found in all of Ribera del Duero.
Dominio de Atauta is now owned by the Terra Selecta group, another prominent producer making site-specific wines from extremely old vines.
Sourdais runs Dominion de Es and Bodegas Antídoto in Soria with his business partner, David Hernando Ortega. His family also owns Domaine de Pallus in France’s Loire Valley.
Their premium, rare and striking wines from Dominio de Es, La Diva 2022 and La Mata 2022, are among the top-rated wines in this report, with La Diva noted for its elegance and almost etherealness and La Mata for its tense, minerally power.
“Phylloxera never arrived here, and we don’t exactly know why, which makes these old, pre-phylloxera vines the gems,” Sourdais explained, noting that many vineyards in Soria were planted well over 150 years ago and that wine was once made in the area purely for personal enjoyment, not commercial sale.
“Back then, there was no money involved,” he said, explaining that it was an era when everyone was trying to make the best wines possible for families, friends and guests. “It was very much like growing your own fruit and vegetables in your backyard, and you would be proud to show them.”
Centuries ago, locals produced wines resembling claret, blending red and white grapes with light extraction in large wooden vessels. “People only came back to make more when they finished their wines,” Sourdais said. That style is in stark contrast with the Ribera del Duero of today, which is more about heft, structure, wood and concentration.
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