Ep. 2395 Spain's Ribera del Duero with Almudena Alberca MW | On the Road with Stevie Kim

What about the weather here? Because we're in May, and it's fucking freezing. Yeah. Doesn't it's going on here? River Edoro, as I told you, it's very extreme climate, and we have a very short season to rip the grapes properly, particularly when you want to make a wine like the acidilia that is going to age for a long time. So normally, we have risk of frost till, the middle of June and an early frost from autumn since the middle of September. Welcome to another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Each week, Stevie travels to incredible wine destinations interviewing some of the Italian wine scene's most interesting personalities, talking about wines, the foods as well as the incredible travel destinations. Okay, Jigas. Tell me, can you give me a quick overview of the rivera del duado? Hello, SDB. Sure. I can. The very good is one of the most special wine areas in the world together with all the areas. And all the Spanish, but it's very important to get to know why it's different. The altitude is very high. It's located in the middle of or the center of a platform, which is a high altitude surrounded by higher elevation mountains. So the flattened part is something between eight hundred fifty meters and one thousand one hundred meters altitude. There are one of these that has vineyards even higher one thousand fifty. This altitude is going to impact directly in the climate. The climate is very extreme. It's continental climate, very long winter with very low temperatures, and short, warm, dry summers. So in the winter, we can go below minus ten celsius degrees. In summer, we can go up or higher than forty celsius degrees. Also, the mean variety is temperature more than ninety five percent of the total plantation is the perennial in the areas called tintofino because it's very elegant and refined. Fino is fine, the fine wine. It could be blended with the small proportions of cabernet sauvignon or grenache. Or someone that is a little bit of Merlotte or Malbec. But mostly, tempranillo, tempranillo is a variety that is super interesting and is able to reflect the terrar. What is this terrar that we have here under the All the bedrock is pure limestone, and the world of river makes some of this composition and erosion and is creating different top soils, sandy soils, clay, pebbles, or river stones, an limestone, which is, blended with the sandy soils. Basically, all the soils are going to be like a pastry, layers of soft soil, which is the cream, clay and send the soil and hard soils, which is the limestone, all in different layers. The valley, because it's a valley, is divided into areas. Northern part and southern part, the northern pan is even cooler, with lower temperatures. And also because it's a valley shape, we are going to have a different or a variation of depth of soil available for the vineyard to grow. We can get soils as short as fifty, seventy centimeters before the bedrock of limestone. Particularly in the slopes or sometimes in the woodland, but we are going to have deeper soils on the bottom of the valley, and sometimes on the, highest elevation areas. This is going also to impact a lot in the fruit expression, in the turning expression, and in the acidity as well. So, basically, we are checking the barrel where it's going east to west on the way to Portugal, and it will turn it a little bit. It's as complex as we can see in burgundy. It's a valley shaped different locations in the valley, different depth of soils, big variations on altitude, and mostly tempranillo with different flavors and different expressions depending where you are. Tempranillo has a lot of aging potential and needs a lot of time to reflect that there are and to introduce all the different elements of soil's brightness, exposures to the sun, into the wine, and also has a lot of affinity to walk. So it love to be aged for a long and slow periods in oak. And after that, it benefits from the time in the bottle as the classic wines like Becca Cetilla where you are going to have wines that have been aged five or up to ten years, plus all the time that you want to give in the bottle. And it's then or there where the temporary start to show up the full potential that the variety has. What are some of the other must try line lines from this area? I think the iconic wines are veracitilla for sure, one of my favorites, Pungus, which is, between the two of them, those are the fine wines from Spain, well known all over the place and also with a very interesting second market. And therefore collectors and find wine investments. And after that they work, we can find amazing wines from smaller producers. Like, I really like Fradesco Verona. I like family wines from Cajeco family, for example, they are very cool Magna Vides, Marta Mate. So Rivera Lotto mostly is a full of small producers. Some of them beanaros or some of them family business now, getting into the second or third generation. Benja, Astre, amazing. And also, there is a big step or a big difference between the Brazilian and Pingos, the second layer of very well known producers. And after that, there are, like, a third or a fourth kind of growth before getting into the cooperatives or major producers that are making a little bit more volume. I love, as well, say, solo, Domino Ratata is an amazing project, where you can understand and learn a lot about the different kind of soils Also, taking into account that Rivera has more than twenty percent Venus older than fifty years old. Almost ten percent are Venus older than eighty years old. So, and there are a good proportion of vineyards on their own roots. Nowadays, it's still prefilocentric, particularly in the highest altitude and the most out still climate in the eastern part of the deal. What about the weather again? Because we're in May, and it's fucking freezing. It's going on here. And, as I told you, it's very extreme climate, and we have a very short season to wipe the grapes properly, particularly when you want to make wine like Brazil that is going to age for a long time. So, normally, we have risk of frost till, the middle of June, and an early frost from autumn since the middle of September. So, Viticult tourists are very professional here because you cannot lost any day. This year is a small and usual spring where we are still having a lot of snow in the mountains. Last week, we have a couple of days with temperatures below zero, and still we are in the risk this week and the next week of frost. So every one area that has some wings are moving their machines in order to avoid the frost. And this is where I'll go. Always risk always a stream And last year, I remember in June, we had, periods of hail as well. So this is what happened in extreme places. You can have extremely good wines as well, but you need to suffer the process. Okay. And that's a wrap. Thank you for joining us on another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content on the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com or wherever you get your pods. You can check out our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp to watch these interviews and the footage captured at each location. Changing.