Esteban Celemín is an engineer, but his love of wine has caught up with him to such an extent that he devotes much of his free time to recovering the Albillo Real variety. This grape has virtually disappeared from the Toro area and is not listed in the DO regulations.
A regular at the UEC (Unión Española de Catadores) tastings, Celemín has many good friends among fellow aficionados. Last week, at Guía Peñín\'s Best Wines show, one of them was handing out the leaflet shown below. Not a bad way to arouse curiosity.
Albillo Real is different from the Albillo Mayor that is so fashionable in Ribera del Duero now. It reached the Duero region in the 18th century, from Cebreros and San Martín de Valdeiglesias in Gredos. It was highly prized as a table grape and, according to Celemín, there were once 1,000 hectares in area, almost all of which have been uprooted.
He recovered old plant material to create his own vineyard on limestone soils in 2014. This plot is the source of Señora Vale (2,000 bottles, €22), a powerful, deep white, with candied citrus notes and a long, salty finish.
Celemín also bottles tiny amounts of grapes under the brand Últimas Huellas to showcase specific aspects of his Albillo: the tension of the sandy soils in Argujillo or the glyceric character of the stony soils in El Pinar. The single vineyard A Horquilla (€30) deserves special mentionfor its amazing opulence that fills the entire palate.
Author
Amaya Cervera
A wine journalist with almost 30 years' experience, she is the founder of the award-winning Spanish Wine Lover website. In 2023, she won the National Gastronomy Award for Gastronomic Communication
