Ribera del Duero
This region is situated in the meridian extreme of the province of Burgos and bathed by the Duero, which crosses it and supports it. It is a land of noble and old wines, vast undulating hills forming the landscape, and the wide, flat valley of the Duero, furrowed by the river which fertilises the low-lying land, under a sun that kisses the extensive vineyards and shines silvery on the horizon. A natural frontier between the Christian kingdoms of the north and the Moslems of the south in the far-off days of the Reconquest, its lands store a dense history and its churches and monasteries keep a rich artistic heritage.
One of the most important vine-growing areas in the world, not just in Castile and Leon, extends around the river Duero, from the lands of Soria and Burgos, passing through the North of the province of Segovia, to Valladolid.
Of the four provinces, the most extensive one is, undoubtedly, Burgos, washed by the Duero from East to West, and whose "Denominación de Origen" Ribera del Duero includes sixty municipalities.
A continental climate, an average height above sea level of 800 metres and with a rich and fertile alluvium and clayey soil, have created the right habitat for the Red of the Country, the main variety of the area -from the same stock as the Tempranillo grape-, which gives colour, aroma and body to the excellent red wines of the Ribera del Duero. To a lesser extent, the musts of the varieties Cabernet-Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec -the three of French origin- complement the basis for the rich wines, as well as the more rustic Garnacha with a stronger colour and the Albillo or White of the Country.
The Ribera del Duero reds are strongly-coloured wines, with purple iridescence, a very delicate and penetrating aroma and mildly acid. The roses are subtle in colour, fruity, fresh and light in the mouth.
Burgos guide