New documentary reveals Bierzo's singular landscape

Last week, the DO Bierzo screened the documentary El viticultor y la tierra (The wine grower and the land), in Madrid ahead of its showing at the Most International Wine Film Festival in Catalunya this month. The film looks at the wine classification adopted by the region to identify wines according to their grape origin and takes viewers on a tour of some of the region\'s most distinctive parajes (lieux-dits), featuring comments from producers, wine critics and Regulatory Board representatives.

Directed by Alicia Van Assche and produced by her company Mil Ojos, it explores the idea that each site can be compared to a musical genre, which can be performed differently by individual winegrowers. While this concept is easily understood by any audience, we wine professionals did not see clear connections between the sites and the music being played in each case.

Despite the lengthy footage and repetitive tone, the documentary does show the singularity of Bierzo\'s landscape, its old vine heritage and a general agreement on how the classification adds value to the area. Ricardo Pérez Palacios (Descendientes de J. Palacios), one of the driving forces behind it, emphasises in the film that the classification has succeeded at distinguishing quality and features and, most importantly, at “putting winegrowers and terroir on the same level”.

During the presentation, Raúl Pérez pointed out that this was the easiest and most logical way to make wine in the region. It should be noted that the star producer from Bierzo, who is the subject of another documentary that will also be shown at the Most Festival, handed over to the DO the brands that he had registered with the names of the sites and encouraged other producers to launch their own versions of El Rapolao, giving this site almost cult status. All this despite the fact that he continues to be a free spirit when it comes to making his wines and doesn\'t use the designations of the new classification.

The screening was followed by a tasting of well over 50 regional, village and lieux-dits wines. The latter, often produced in less than 1,000 bottles, stood out. Bierzo is beginning to offer wine lovers a Burgundian-inspired exploration of its diverse terroirs at reasonable prices, at least for the time being.