February 28, 2014
From Ribera's Past

Ancient ungrafted vines yield an old-vine red whose depth, perfume and price will shock you.

Over the past two decades, Ribera del Duero came out of nowhere to become Spain’s most successful wine region. Yet, some of its finest wines are yet to be made. The reason is simple: many of the best terroirs are in the province of Soría, the easternmost part of Ribera, which is still largely unexplored by today’s winemakers.

The allure of Soría is not only its cooler climate (relative to the rest of Ribera) but the fact that it is a sea of ungrafted Tempranillo vines, many of them dating back to the time of Phylloxera. It is one of the largest concentrations of ungrafted vines in Europe.

The area was brought to the world’s attention a decade ago by Dominio de Atauta, whose winemaker was a young Frenchman, Bertrand Sourdais. His profound wines, from very old ungrafted bines and priced from $35 to $100, made Atauta one of the hottest names in Spanish wine. But the domaine was sold and Bertrand left to pursue other things. One was to make wine in his native Chinon in the Loire Valley. But the other was to make his own wine from Soría’s ancient vineyards. While he calls his Chinon ‘Pallus,’ he calls the wine he is now making in Soría ‘Antidoto.’

A Different Take on Ribera
Antidoto’s intriguing name, Spanish for “antidote,” reflects Bertrand’s belief that the wine is an antidote to the trend in Ribera to substitute heavy-handed winemaking for a sense of place and variety. And at its reasonable price, it is also an antidote to the region’s high prices.

In the right hands, the wines of the Soría sub-zone blend Rioja’s fragrance and finesse with Ribera del Duero’s traditional power and depth. To maximize these qualities, he uses long, gentle macerations to minimize tannin extraction and only uses barrels for aging.

Antidoto’s first vintage was 2009. But, like its Atauta predecessor, it is making huge leaps in quality from vintage to vintage as Bertrand gets to know the vines.