BODEGAS GORMAZ
Ribera del Duero, Spain
Having pioneered the founding and international market penetration of Spain's Ribera del Duero region from the early 1980s, it is a distinct privilege to discover and introduce the Tempranillo from Bodegas Gormaz. A former cooperative, this recently-privatized company controls the majority of vines in Ribera del Duero's Soria province, the highest and least exploited of the region's subdistricts. Remaining just outside the focus of major commercial development, the vineyards here have not undergone restructuring, being for the most part 50 years of age and older and commonly propagated from vine to vine in the prephylloxeric "promiscuous" manner.
In former times, Soria was known for its claretes (dry rosé), resulting from a mixture of red and white grapes. Now the Tempranillo is separated from the white varieties, and the old-vine reds can be equal in structure and power to those from Peñafiel, Pesquera de Duero or Roa.
