Producer · Ribera del Duero, Spain

Valduero

Bodegas Valduero was one of the first wineries founded in Ribera del Duero after the region won its DO in 1982. Gregorio García Álvarez started it in 1984 with his daughters Yolanda and Carolina García Viadero, and the family run it still, with Yolanda, trained in oenology, looking after the wines.

Their hundred and forty hectares are dry-farmed vines in the high country of the upper Ribera, with some of their best parcels at 840 and 900 metres. The top reds are pure Tempranillo and are given long ageing in oak and then in bottle before release. The altitude matters: cool nights up there give the wines the freshness to carry all that dark, savoury fruit.

Winery at Gumiel de Mercado, Ribera del Duero · Tempranillo · £54.95 a bottle