La Aguilera, Ribera del Duero, June 2014 Several Rioja wineries have branched out into Ribera del Duero. What was your reason for investing there and setting up Dominio de Cair? We didn t go there for business or financial reasons. We re not that sort of winery. Money was secondary. It was a professional goal that we wanted to achieve. Did you have a precise idea of what sort of wines you wanted to produce in Ribera del Duero? In Rioja, we had created Amaren, which is a special top-end brand dedicated to the memory of my mother. Dominio de Cair was created in the same spirit as Amaren. Was this a more challenging adventure, given that you were relative strangers to Ribera? Yes and no. We had all the expertise of our Rioja wine-making team to support this project, but our philosophy as a winery is very much based on good viticulture and first getting an intimate understanding of the vines and the character of the grapes. That took time. When did you produce your first vintage? In 2008. By that time, had you got a good enough understanding of Ribera to buy the type of vineyard that would produce high quality wines? The priority was not to buy a vineyard, but to find the right vines and develop a good working relationship with the grape growers who owned these vines. Some of the best vines were tiny plots belonging to small families. This is where we sourced our grapes. And was this in the area where Dominio de Cair stands today?
Many of these plots were around the village of La Aguilera, where the winery is today. It s 9km from Aranda de Duero in Burgos province. Others were on the other side of Aranda at Moradillo de Roa, where in fact we rented space in a winery to make our first vintage. How many hectares of vines were you farming at that stage? Twenty three. How do you compare the viticultural challenges of Ribera del Duero with those of Rioja? Managing vines in Ribera, once you have properly understood the character of the terroir and the grapes, is no different to Rioja. We had the advantage of long experience in managing numerous tiny plots of old vines in Rioja. There must be similarities, such as grape variety and limestone soils, but climatically Ribera is very different from Rioja, isn t it? What struck me very quickly in Ribera was that the terroir is much more conducive to environmentallyfriendly viticulture than in Rioja. And this is something we wish to take advantage of. And become organic? Not necessarily organic. I don t always agree with organic methods. Spraying copper, which is a heavy metal, on the vineyard is not good. So what is the best method for you? I believe that the best viticulture is caring for and looking after the vines meticulously to get the best possible grapes. If the vines are well tended, and fauna such as beneficial predators are encouraged to exist in the vineyard, spray treatments can be reduced and a much more environmentally-friendly viticulture is possible. How many hectares of vines do you farm today in Ribera?
Around 95 hectares, 16 of which are our own. What proportion of these are old vines? 40% of the total are over 45 years old. It can t be easy to discover prime terroir and old vines in Ribera these days. So many other wineries are hunting for the same things aren t they? You re right. Top Ribera wineries from as far away as Valladolid province are paying growers in this part of Ribera good money for their grapes. And what makes the situation more difficult is that when we work with those growers, we require them to prune their vines harder, thin out the shoots and green harvest to get even higher quality fruit. They end up with a smaller crop size and potentially less money. So we have to make up their losses by paying them even more. You re not the only winery operating in this way. I m sure Ribera s iconic names do the same, but it would appear they favour the area down the road near the villages of La Horra, Roa and Sotillo. Is your area in La Aguilera and Moradillo de Roa as good as those places? One of the reasons we chose this area is the high altitude, which ranges from 740m in La Aguilera to 950m in Moradillo. Although the ripening is trickier at these heights, the process is slower, which is better for quality, and the wines have better acidity and balances. This means that our wines have longer ageing potential something which is no longer guaranteed at lower altitudes where the excess heat of some vintages can affect those balances. What does this terroir bring in terms of style of wine? The wines from our area are finer, which is what I like. Maybe because that finesse reminds you of Rioja? Ribera is generally characterised by more savoury, flavoursome wines. Rioja, in comparison, has more finesse and elegance. But I like both. Is it possible to make Ribera del Duero in a more Rioja style? I believe so. The land gives us what it gives us, but the winemaker, like a good chef, can bring out more or less flavour or more or less finesse.
When your Luis Cañas Crianza 2009 was given over 90 Parker points by Neal Martin and judged to be the best value for money wine in the world, was it the wine s flavour or its finesse that was appreciated? I think in that wine it was both. What style of wines are you making at Dominio de Cair? Wines that express the natural fruit flavour of Ribera del Duero enhanced by finesse through the terroir and the winemaking. How exactly do you enhance the finesse in the wine-making? By taking into account all the parameters of grape ripeness and vinifying each vintage according to those parameters. Some winemakers may favour structure, or tannin, or colour or other things. Our preference is fruit and elegance. It doesn t matter to us if the IPT is a bit lower or the colour a bit less deep, as long as the fruit character and elegance come through. How much does the quality of Cair depend on your plots of old vines? As a rule, old vines provide higher quality, but not necessarily every year. Sometimes we deselect an old vine plot and put it into CUVEE, our entry-level brand, while younger vines may provide the grapes for CAIR or even our premium wine TIERRAS DE CAIR. The economic crisis has had a huge impact on the Spanish wine sector. Many wineries have launched cheap brands as alternative solutions for their regular clients. You don t appear to be following this trend We have a strategy for the long-term. It s costing us at the moment, but I believe we re on the right path, even if it means occasionally rejecting opportunities to sell large quantities at discounted prices. If I want to keep paying my growers what they deserve and buying quality new barrels, I have to sell at the right price for us. It s not personal enrichment; it s a question of making enough money to produce the quality of wine we want. How are you financing these costs? Through Luis Cañas, our Rioja winery. But it will take years to make Dominio de Cair profitable.
How confident are you about the future? We ve started very positively, even on the Spanish market. We need to grow more, but it s going well. On the export market we re selling in the major wine importing countries, but for the moment only 5% is sold abroad. We re expecting to reach 30%, which is the figure for Luis Cañas, within a couple of years. With father, Luis Cañas, in Rioja Why is the export percentage still low? Because we re just starting. We re getting plenty of orders, but they are small ones, which is normal at this early stage. It s a slow process, and we re going to need a couple of years to really grow these markets. Which export markets have responded best to CAIR? Denmark and Holland. And this is mostly for your flagship wine Dominio de Cair? Yes, that s right. How many other brands do you produce from your Ribera del Duero winery? Cuvée is our entry-level and largest production. Tierras de Cair is a premium wine, and then Pendón de la Aguilera is a top-end limited release that we only produce in the best years. But CAIR is our flagship wine, and this is what is most in demand in the market. Contact details: David Herrero, david@dominiodecair.com, +34 619859827