Located in the northwest corner of Castilla y Leon, Bierzo has been under vine for some 2,000 years but has only recently emerged on the international wine scene. Now it’s a wine scene to watch, believed by some to be “the next Priorat.”
History
Roman author, philosopher, and naturalist Pliny the Elder penned the earliest written records of vineyards in what is now the Bierzo region of Spain some 2,000 years ago. Viniculture began to advance in a more serious way in the 10th & 11th centuries, thanks to the influence of pilgrims passing through the region en route to the holy city, Santiago de Compostela. Cistercian monks, to whom wine was a vital part of the ritual of prayer and an important form of sustenance, were particularly influential.
Winemaking in Bierzo thrived for 900 hundred years before suffering a severe blow from the phylloxera epidemic in the late 19th century. The regional wine industry took a long time to bounce back. As a modern wine region, Bierzo has mostly been known for cheap, fruity, young reds produced from the indigenous Mencia grape and imbibed predominantly by locals. It was officially recognized as a Denominacion de Origen (DO) in 1989.
Times are changing in Bierzo as visionary winemakers like Alvaro Palacios – who contributed to the revival of the Priorat region in the 1990s – have recognized potential in the region’s old vines, temperate climate, and diverse soil. Winemakers have begun to flock to Bierzo to innovate wines of exceptional quality.
Climate
Bierzo is the gateway between damp, verdant Galicia and hot, dry Castilla y Leon, and boasts a mild climate that offers the best of both worlds. The climate is generally mild Atlantic-Continental with lower nighttime temperatures and colder winters than Castilla y Leon, and less rain than Galicia.
Soil
The soil in Bierzo is slightly acidic and contains fine elements, quartz and slate. Soil types and vineyard location is diverse here, ranging from stony with good drainage to lush and fertile, and resulting in very different expressions of the local grape depending upon where it is grown.
Varietals
Unlike other regions of Spain, winemakers in Bierzo have hewn to original varietals rather than tearing up the indigenous vines and supplanting them with international grapes. Some varietals are grown experimentally, but the focus remains, as it has for centuries, on Mencia and Garnacha Tintorera for reds, and Godello, Donna Blanca, Malvasia, and Palomino for whites.
Mencia can range from light and fruity to deep and concentrated, but a hallmark of the varietal is what wine writer Eric Asimov calls its “haunting, complex aroma” evocative of blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and wildflowers. Unusual, unruly, and altogether spellbinding, the popularity of this wine among cork dorks comes as no surprise. Lighter incarnations also make for great summer sippers, and can even work as a lightly chilled red – we suggest geeking out with a bottle today.
