Bodegas La Senda "Vindemiatrix" Castilla y Leon, Spain 2023

FROM JOSÉ PASTOR:

THE WINE: A blend of Mencía & Doña Blanca. From several organically farmed old-vine parcels in the hills surrounding the village of Hervededo. Most of the parcels are red and white grapes inter-planted, so Diego co-ferments the different native grape varieties, as was done in the past. The soils are mainly clay-calcareous, and the elevation is around 550 meters. The grapes were hand-harvested, destemmed, macerated for 4-5 days and fermented and raised in unlined concrete tanks for 7 months. The wine is bottled without fining or filtration, and a small addition of S02 is added.

THE PRODUCER: Diego Losada is a Bierzo native who, after working at a couple bigger wineries, struck out on his own with his project La Senda (meaning “the path” or “the way”) in 2013. He works organically with just over 5 hectares of 60+ year old vineyards at elevations of over 600 feet, about 15 parcels in total. He looks for bush vine vineyards that are not easily accessible by road and planted on either clay-calcareous or slate soils since they are less likely to be exposed to chemical treatments. In the winery, Diego works with a mix of unlined concrete vats and older oak & chestnut casks and foudre with no pumps or SO2 additions. The Bierzo appellation is at the northwest corner of Castilla y León, bordering Galicia. The rolling hills are full of abandoned gold, iron and magnesium mines from centuries.