WINEMAKING
wine
In Yolanda´s own words:
“First of all, to make a great wine, we need unique and excellent grapes to reach the winery. In Valduero we hand select the bunches in the vineyard“.
She adds: “we must treat the grapes with the utmost care, and we have developed a system where the grapes enter directly into the fermentation vat with out using pumps. We can gently press the grapes using gravity“.
In Yolanda´s opinion: “The material that houses the grape for fermentation must respect its aroma and flavour, there is nothing better for this than stainless steel. After fermentation, the container that really contributes frank, honest and noble flavours and aromas is wood. I select the best oak barrels in the world” .
PERSONALITY
The absolute basis of our wine´s authenticity and personality are the use of native yeasts, typical of the land and climate of each harvest.
We will know that it is a Valduero, and we will know that each vintage offers us something different.
Yolanda adds: “The true test for me is knowing when to discard a complete vintage and to do it if the quality does not reach the high level that our search for excellence demands. Valduero cannot be made in years of poor grape quality. Valduero did not elaborate the years 2008 and 2013”.
AGEING
wine
BARRELS
All our wines pass time in more than one type of oak barrel. Time is one of our ingredients and it allows us to assemble all the aromas and flavours at their source in the bottle.
This also allows natural clarification and settling, aided by the 12ºC temperature in ourvaults and barrel room.
BOTTLE
Valduero wines are characterized by the length of bottle ageing – sometimes up to 8 years. When they go on the market, they are round and very harmonious. It is another characteristic that makes our wines unique.
“Our wine gain complexity in the bottle because of the ageing”
Yolanda García Viadero
WINEMAKING
RESPECTING THE ENVIRONMENT
I never proposed ecology or respect for the environment as just a novelty. We conceived our construction in the form of vaults dug into the earth with a clear desire: to seek constants in temperature and humidity that allow us to age the wines touching EXCELLENCE. Through this experience, we discovered that everything natural that is not powered by combustible or sustainable energies is precisely what enhances and elevates our wines to the category of works of art. The environment is not a fashion, it is my ally: we take care of each other, because what is good for the environment is good for VALDUERO wines”
Yolanda García Viadero.
It is a real spectacle to enter through the tunnels dug into a mountain, where the temperature and humidity are natural constants (and the optimal ones for making and aging wines), without the need for heaters, humidifiers, or air conditioning.
“Our goal was excellence, and in my experience, wine reaches this the more the environment is respected.”
Yolanda comments passionately.
AN AMBITIOUS GOAL TO TURN THE WAREHOUSE INTO ZERO ENERGY EXPENDITURE
In our constant search for perfection, Valduero pursues the ambitious “ZERO” ENERGY EXPENDITURE goal. Almost € 1,300,000 of investment that will be carried out in phases.
“Our goal was never to change the use of energy that comes from fossil fuel for energy that comes from renewables, our goal in building these vaults was ZERO ENERGY EXPENDITURE”
In 2020, the second phase of the project began: a large project in which we drill our tunnels from the top of the mountain, to be able to obtain a pressing of the grapes by gravity.
“If the natural force of gravity can do this job, why transport the grapes with pumps that use a huge amount of electrical energy and crush the grapes, dispersing its components?” Yolanda wonders.
We thus avoid the tremendous expense with electric pumps and replace it with this very natural method: the grape is treated with a care that preserves its healthiness, acidity and concentration parameters that make distinguished wines with unique results of an exceedingly rare excellence. The eternity of the wine inside the bottle.
Wine, according to Yolanda “is not something mechanical, it is not a mathematical method or a static formula. We start from the premise that the ability of the human being to create art can never be replaced by the machine”.
Carolina: “We make Valduero with artisanal systems that promote not only the nurturing of the environment but also the worth and ingenuity of the human being compared to a machine.”
The result, as Yolanda says, “is a jewel, a grape that has everything”.
“Why go to the laboratories that generate artificial yeasts with their corresponding energy expenditure, if our grapes, respecting the environment, have yeasts of a quality that give pure excellence?”
Yolanda does not make her creations for the critics’ tasting tables, but for the tables where great wines are enjoyed and appreciated.