The first image that wine lovers might associate with the Duero River is probably the austere, naked landscape of DO Ribera; or perhaps the rolling hills that barely disturb the flat skylines of Rueda and Toro. Yet on its journey westwards, the Duero runs through pastureland and a plain dotted with granite outcrops that ends abruptly when its waters are channeled into steep gorges up to 300 metres high on the border with Portugal.
This geographical feature, referred to locally as arribes, lends its name to one of the smallest, most remote wine-growing regions in Spain as well as to the natural park that lies on its banks; a narrow strip of land that runs along 100 km on the course of the river through the provinces of Zamora and Salamanca in Castilla y León.
Declared a Historic-Artistic Site in 1974, the charming village of Fermoselle (Zamora) offers splendid views of this dramatic cross-border scenery, its two banks irrevocably looking at each other.
The rugged landscape of Arribes explains its isolation, low population density (there are fewer than 15,000 inhabitants in the area) and a history of subsistence economy which was beautifully captured in the documentary Arribes: everything else is noise, filmed by Zev Robinson and Albertina Torres in the early 2010s. The most relevant industry in Arribes is the exploitation of hydroelectric power from its rivers and waterfalls.
Wine has traditionally been the area's most widely travelled product. Commercial trade with the cities of Zamora and Salamanca is well documented. And wine buyers from León and Galicia bought local reds and claretes because of their generous alcohol content -historian and geographer Alain Huetz de Lemps wrote that wines reached 13% and 14% vol. in the 1960s.
As in other peripherical wine regions, the loss of vineyard area has been significant in recent decades. In the 1970s, Spain's Ministry of Agriculture estimated 2,810 hectares under vine in Fermoselle and 4,918 hectares in the Salamanca part of Ribera, whereas nowadays there are barely 279 hectares registered in the whole appellation.
As growing conditions are difficult, vines have gradually vanished from steep terraces in the rivers' gorges where the warm Mediterranean influence prevails. Nowadays vineyards are grown almost exclusively on the peneplain under continental conditions. Elevation can reach 800 metres above sea level, although most plots are found between 600 and 720 metres.
Around 1,100,000 bottles are produced in Arribes by fewer than 20 bodegas. The two local cooperatives do not handle large volumes. Virgen de la Bandera in Fermoselle picks some 50,000 kg a year and produces 10,000 bottles sold locally. In Aldeadávila de Duero (Salamanca), Arribes del Duero Sdad. Coop. is more modern. According to its website, it farms 100 hectares of vine, among which old vine Bruñal stands out. Part of group Arco, Hacienda Zorita (70 hectares, 400,000 bottles and an attractive tourist offer including accommodation and restaurants), is the largest producer in the region and is focused on international-style wines made from Tempranillo and Syrah, including a well-balanced red made from this Rhône grape.
Small private bodegas, some of them producing fewer than 10,000 bottles, make up the rest. Over half of them are based in Fermoselle, where most of the vineyards (138 hectares) are also found.
In recent years, however, new producers have emerged, ranging from young locals returning to their villages to outsiders hooked by the dramatic scenery, the local architecture or the area’s cross-border nature.
There is no chance of getting bored in Arribes. Take Charlotte Allen, the British woman behind AlmaRoja with a sound international background who made her first natural wines in the area in 2007. Her bodega occupies the premises of what once was a nightclub and the place remains more or less the same, with fermentation vats on the dance floor and a bar counter that she uses as a tasting table. It is a memorable experience, not only because of the décor but also for Charlotte’s fascinating explanations about vineyards and the particular features of the many grape varieties grown in the area.
Allen also consults for Bruneo, a small producer that has recently sprung out in the area. Their painstaking restoration of two of the dozens of underground cellars in Fermoselle is worth a visit. The inscriptions on the rock, the presence of water for purification rites and the seven steps leading to the small water well provide evidence of a community of converted Jews who benefitted from the isolation of the area and the privacy of these underground caves to practice their religion secretly.
Thyge Benned Jensen, a Dane known locally as “Chus", is the founder of Bodegas Frontio and has also settled in Fermoselle. In June, he was busy building his new home and winery to have it finished in time for the harvest. An economist and former sales manager of the gas division of a multinational company, he explored other Spanish regions but found it easier to buy vineyards in Arribes. Since his arrival in 2016, he has managed to purchase 6.5 hectares and rents a further five. In addition, he plants a new hectare every year to offset the low planting density and the significant number of missing plants in the old vineyards. Although not the general trend in Arribes, he thinks that low alcohol wines can be produced in the area. In order to achieve this, he picks grapes relatively early and works with significant amounts of stems.
El Hato y El Garabato is another interesting name. It was launched by José Manuel Beneitez, who is also the oenologist at Viñas del Cénit in DO Tierra del Vino de Zamora, when he returned to his homeland with his wife Liliana Fernández and their two young children. The couple, who trained as forestry engineers before acquiring winemaking experience in Australia, California and Portugal, arrived in Arribes in 2015, in time to harvest the only vineyard in the hands of the family: a small plot inherited from José Manuel's great-grandfather. They have restored a traditional farmhouse in the village of Formariz which is now their home and winery and are very active in terms of experimenting with grape varieties and winemaking styles. I've followed their work since 2018, when I tasted their Juan García Sin Blanca 2016 at a wine fair in Madrid, a wine that felt particularly refined for the standards of the area.
Some respected producers from other regions buy grapes in Arribes and make wines outside the appellation. They are Alvar de Dios (very much focused in the village of Villadepera in Zamora), Barco del Corneta (Prapetisco) or Daterra Viticultores (Camino de la Frontera) and all of them have become keen ambassadors of Arribes.
The latest to arrive is Raúl Pérez, who has just picked his first grapes in the 2021 vintage to make his own wine in the area with the help of El Hato y el Garabato.
Soils are one of the defining features that set Arribes apart from the eastern side of the Duero valley. As it enters the area, the river is embedded in the Paleozoic basement (or Antic Massif) composed of granite rocks and, to a lesser extent, slate. Hacienda Zorita, some five kilometres away from the centre of Fermoselle, stands at the site that marks the start of this granitic territory.
In general, granite is more prevalent in Zamora province (it is not uncommon to find large rocks and boulders, like those of Gredos), while slate is mostly seen in Salamanca province. The River Tormes, with its imposing Almendra dam on the last section, marks the border between the two provinces. According to Carlos Capilla, the Consejo's technical director, porous soils made of highly disaggregated materials filter water well, reducing the risk of humidity affecting botrytis-sensitive varieties such as the red Juan García. Actually, wildlife is a bigger threat to the vines than fungal diseases.
Small plots dominate the wine-growing scenery of Arribes. Except for Hacienda Zorita's extensive trellised vineyards, bush vines with intermixed grape varieties farmed with little tillage are the norm. The wealth of varieties is fascinating. Leaving aside the Canary Islands, Arribes could well be considered the "Jurassic vineyard" of mainland Spain, with a long tradition of co-planting resembling that of Portugal. Many of the minor grape varieties recovered in recent years in Castilla y León were sourced from here.
Accounting for 119 hectares, just over 40% of the entire area under vine, Juan García is the main variety in Arribes. White grapes, predominantly Malvasía Castellana or Dona Blanca, make up for around 10%, while the red Bruñal, which has aroused interest lately due to its good structure and ability to age, covers around 12 hectares (4.3%), mostly found in Villarino, in Salamanca province.
Rather anecdotal, Mencía is only grown on the northern end of the region, the closest to León, around the village of Villalcampo in Zamora. In contrast, Rufete (15 hectares) is planted further south in Aldeadávila, in Salamanca province (click here to see a map with the villages).
Other grape varieties recently authorized in Castilla y León have been included in the amendments to DO rules that are due to be ratified by the EU: the white Puesta en Cruz, with some experimental wines already on release, and reds Bastardillo Chico (Merenzao), Tinto Jeromo, Mandón and Gajo Arroba. This undoubtedly opens up new choices and opportunities for wine producers.
Whilst such diversity is fascinating, it also poses a few challenges. Charlotte Allen grows 20 grape varieties with different stages of ripening in fewer than 10 plots. When she first arrived to Arribes, locals used to pick all the grapes together, but she prefers to harvest on different stages. She usually starts with the white grapes, which are jointly fermented except Palomino because of its oxidative character in Arribes; continues with early-ripening red varieties in early-ripening plots and ends with late-ripening red varieties grown on late-ripening plots. “There is usually a two-week gap between early and late-ripening grapes and two extra weeks between early and late-ripening plots,” she points out.
At Frontio, Chus also starts with the whites but makes different choices with reds: grapes are cofermented for the entry-level red Follaco, vinified separately for his Arbusto blend and cofermented again in the case of his flagship red Bébeme, with the largest proportion of Juan García.
As if there were not enough obstacles, Juan García has one irritating feature: stems and, mostly, pips struggle to ripen fully, which, according to Carlos Capilla, can even lead to "depiping". Could this be the reason behind the characteristic rusticity of the region's wines? Understandably, Charlotte Allen always destems and extracts very little. "There is never a lack of tannins in Arribes," she says.
According to Pachi from La Setera, who together with partner Sara Groves-Raines has been working in the area since the early 1990s making artisanal cheese and wine, Juan García is also a reductive variety that becomes raisined very quickly. His trick is to keep an eye on the minimum temperature and pick the grapes when it drops below 17ºC. This, he points out, "is quite early for the area, but Juan García's fine, delicate skin is prone to botrytis."
El Hato y El Garabato also pick early, but they use stems generously without worrying about colour, tread just enough to have some must to undergo fermentation in plastic vats, and extract very softly. José Manuel and Liliana say that stems add finesse and are a great tool in warm vintages such as 2017. For them, Juan García is the most distinctive grape variety in Arribes. They like Bruñal's acidity and absence of rusticity, but also find it has an earthy, straightforward character.
With its remarkable body and ageing potential, Bruñal is the most demanded red variety to make top-of-the-range wines. Grape prices differ considerably: €1-€2/kg for Bruñal compared to €0.34-0.40 for Juan García. The most expensive Arribes wines, retailing around or above €30, are made from Bruñal -see our list of favourites below from the samples we tasted at the Consejo in June. Probably, the couple of crazily priced Bruñal wines that Ribera del Pelazas launched before the pandemic are in part responsible for this.
Even though Bruñal may be more rewarding for the producers, it is interesting to see that Arribes has its yin and yang. This trip also revealed that rusticity can be avoided or at least tempered. The good news is that a growing number of producers are delving deeper into grape varieties and soils -it would be good to have more of this information on the labels, as it occurs now in other Spanish regions where granite and slate coexist. Most importantly, like other neglected regions with a breathtaking scenery, Arribes has a powerful story to tell.
Whites
Pirita 2019, AlmaRoja
Otro Cuento 2019, El Hato y el Garabato
Juan García blends (reds)
De Buena Jera 2017, El Hato y el Garabato
Bébeme 2019, Bodega Frontio
Pirita 2018, AlmaRoja
Condado de Fermosel Crianza 2015, Ocellvm Durii
Paraje de los Bancales 2016, Bodega Pastrana
La Setera Tinaja Varietal 2014, La Setera
Bruñal (reds)
Arribes de Vettonia Vendimia Seleccionada 2016, Arribes de Duero Sdad. Coop.
Sabaria Bruñal 2017, Bodegas Pardal y Punto
Palabras que no te dije Bruñal 2015, Francisco Rodríguez Garrote
B Bruñal 2010, Ribera de Pelazas
Quinta las Velas 2018, Quinta las Velas
