Located in the province of Burgos, Viña Sastre is an iconic producer in Ribera del Duero and the epitome of the powerful wines that are usually found in this area. The Sastre family has been growing vines in La Horra at least since their great-grandfather’s days. Grandfather Severiano was a founding member of the Asunción cooperative and his son Rafael set up the winery in 1992 with sons Pedro and Jesus. They had previous experience trading with wine, but their own grapes where vinified separately and sold to family, friends and acquaintances.
After the tragic death of Pedro in a road accident in 2002, Jesús took over all grape growing and winemaking decisions in the 55 hectares of vines that the family owns in Roa and La Horra. Viña Sastre also purchases grapes from a few trusted suppliers in the vicinity.
Sastre’s biggest pride are their 25Ha of very old vines (over 60 years old) that are usually destined to their flagship reds including the Crianza (around €22 in Spain, between 80,000 and 90,000 bottles), a wine capable of aging beautifully.
The house’s premium reds come from selected plots located to the south of La Horra. The jewel in the crown is Pago de Santa Cruz (around 14,000 bottles, €52), a gentle hill at 849m above sea level bordering Roa. The place is particularly blessed as it features all kinds of exposures with soils showing different shades of colours. The style is very traditional as the wine is aged in American oak. There’s also a Gran Reserva version with around 30 months of aging in oak barrels and vats that is sold entirely outside of Spain.
Grapes for Regina Vides (€75, around 6,000 bottles) are sourced from local vineyards Las Tenadas, Sendino, Hoyo de las Heras and El Bercial. The style is more refined as the wine is aged in French oak. The top red Pesus (only 2,000 bottles, €360 in Spain) blends grapes from El Bercial and Valdelayegua (the latter, like Santa Cruz, has always belonged to the family) with small amounts of Cabernet and Merlot.
Chemical fertilizers or pesticides haven’t been used for more than 30 years. Moon cycles are followed for pruning, as it is traditional in the area. They are not organic-certified but they rarely use copper as they believe it kills the life in the soil. Instead, they are staunch advocates of mineral powdered sulphur, to keep spiders, mites and specially oidium –by far the biggest risk in the area– under control. All wines are fermented with natural yeasts (yeast starters are not needed) even those with alcoholic potential of 15% vol. New plantings are done with cuttings from their most valued vineyards or low yield Tempranillo clones.
Other wines in the range include Viña Sastre Roble (€11), a fruit-driven red aged for six months in three-year-old barrels and the rosé Marcelian Gómez (€12, 3,000 bottles) that briefly followed the lighter, pale-coloured trend, but which recovered the traditional style of the area on the 2017 vintage and is made by bleeding the must after one day of maceration with skins.
Flavus is a rare white made on selected vintages with the lesser known Jaén variety. All the white vines among the dominant Tempranillo are harvested separately. Rather unnoticed in its youth, it develops interestingly after five years of cellaring.
