Prieto Pariente are the surnames of siblings Ignacio and Martina, third generation of growers and second generation of producers at José Pariente, a benchmark winery in Rueda founded by their mother María Victoria. Although both are now fully involved in the family business, they were keen to have their own project.
To this end, they embarked on a search of distinctive vineyards in different areas of Castilla y León that they creatively craft under the VT Castilla y León seal at their winery in Rueda.
The range includes three reds and a white. Among the reds, they produce Los Confines de Prieto Pariente (€29.50, 3,500 bottles) in Gredos. This Garnacha is sourced from a south-facing slate vineyard in Cebreros and a north-facing granite site in San Bartolomé de Pinares searching the right balance between the region's two main soils.
Fresh and finely textured, El Origen de Prieto Pariente (€29.50, 3,500 bottles) has a truly distictive character. Tempranillo grapes grown on sandy soils in Mucientes (Cigales) are blended with small additions of Tempranillo from Valbuena de Duero (Ribera del Duero) and Garnacha from Pedrosa del Rey, a village in Valladolid provice but part of DO Toro. La Provincia de Prieto Pariente (€14, 20,000 bottles) is their entry-level wine; a blend of 65% Tempranillo and 35% Garnacha sourced from vines planted in the 1940s and 1950s in the same villages, all three in the province of Valladolid (hence the name).
There is also a white Viognier made from a vineyard planted in La Seca in 1999, which in recent vintages shows a vertical profile and pleasant saltiness. And the Godello O Chan (€16) from DO Bierzo. The grapes come from a vineyard planted in 1986 on a hillside at 607 metres elevation in the village of Cabañas Raras. The soils are quartzite and slate with a clay-loam texture
