CH I / THE WINES
Salomón
2023
Geografías
Ribera del duero / Tinta del País /
Duero, wines for eternity
The Bowels of Fuentecén
Rippa Dorii Geografías Salomón is a project that goes to the soul of the Ontañón Family in the Ribera del Duero. Salomón is a unique vineyard, lashed by the years, survivor of harsh winters and arid summers in which it extracts the legendary finesse of the Ribera tempranillo. Old bushes in new glasses. Elegance which is sustained in time in devotion to a remote tradition of men. Skies and a river, the Duero, which marks the beat of the seasons and the rhythm of wines with a vocation to last for eternity.
The Burgos bank, on which the town of Fuentecén rises, and our tiny vineyard of old vines called Salomón, represents the first great vineyard of the Duero basin and is located in the huge opening made by the river itself and its tributaries. Fuentecén is bathed by the Riaza, which flows into the Duero in nearby Roa after rising in Fuente del Cancho, in the Segovian beech wood of Pedrosa. And the Riaza provides a particular microclimate to the plots of Fuentecén which soften the effects of the harshest winter and freshens up the intensity of the short but dramatically hot summers.
The chalky plateaus which shape the heaths rise to a height of 900 metres and surround the banks of this tributary of the Duero, which open a ridge with areas of scrub, holm oaks and even pine trees. At the foot of the carved embankments, in loams with a lot of gypsum, there are privileged soils for vine growing. «We go from clay to sand, to badly consolidated sandstone and locally to firmer conglomerates», as Professor Huetz de Lemps points out.
Our old Fuentecén vineyard occupies clay- sand and banks of shingle, the cereal crops are found in clay soils and the frequent pine groves, like the one which surrounds our town’s wine cellar district – a hidden gem from the 18th century – disappear in sandy soils.
Salomón,
the initiating
vineyard of Fuentecén
To make the first wine in the GEOGRAFÍAS collection from RIPPA DORII we need to be absolutely true to the history of the Ribera, to the tradition of Fuentecén and the spirit of searching of our philosophy as a bodega. From our vineyard heritage we chose Salomón, a unique and extraordinary hawthorn from the Ribera del Duero which expresses the essence of this zone with millimetrical faithfulness: abundant colour, the true fruit of the Burgos Ribera and its silky, polished tannins. An amazing fragrance, a certainty of a wine which has been made with a vocation for lasting through time.
Leticia Pérez Cuevas, RIPPA DORII grape grower, tells us that the variety is tempranillo or tinta del país and that the age of the Salomón vines is over forty years. Previous vineyards in these areas were planted with a mixture of varieties, especially white grapes, to make the traditional clarete Ribera wine, so loved by the people of the zone.
Salomón occupies less than four hectares and the vines are grafted with the best tinto fino from the zone. With goblet pruning and the unirrigated Marco Real planting pattern it offers a yield which never surpasses 4,500 kilos per hectare. And if the landscape speaks to us of a plot which stretches over gentle slopes with exceptional natural drainage and at altitudes of over 820 metres above sea level, the soil offers us various and very varied profiles which give the wine character and complexity: it has strata of chalk and stones as well as the original white clay produced by the erosion by the Riaza.
THE MICROCLIMATE OF FUENTECÉN
The microclimate of Fuentecén, nestled in the Ribera del Duero, is profoundly shaped by its geographical position and the influence of the Riaza River, a tributary of the Duero. Situated on the Burgos bank, Fuentecén lies within a broad depression carved by the Duero River and its tributaries, creating a distinctive terroir for viticulture. Below are the key aspects of its microclimate:
Influence of the Riaza River: Originating in the Segovian beech forest of La Pedrosa and joining the Duero near Roa, the Riaza imparts a unique microclimate to Fuentecén. This river tempers extreme climatic conditions, mitigating the severity of the bitterly cold winters—described as “most cruel”—and cooling the short but intensely warm summers. Such climatic moderation is vital for the slow, balanced ripening of the grapes.
Altitude and Limestone Plateaux: Fuentecén is situated at elevations ranging from 820 to 900 metres above sea level, surrounded by limestone plateaux known as páramos. This altitude contributes to significant diurnal temperature variation, with warm days and cool nights, fostering a gradual ripening process that enhances the concentration of aromas and the finesse of the Tinta del País (Tempranillo) grape.
Extreme Conditions and Their Impact: Fuentecén’s climate is marked by cold, arid winters and brief but intensely hot summers. Spring rains are critical for retaining moisture in the deeper soil layers, enabling vigorous budbreak and optimal phenolic and alcoholic ripeness in the grapes, despite limited summer rainfall and temperature spikes.
Soils and Drainage: The soils of Fuentecén, composed of white clays, limestone strata, stony layers, and pebble banks, combined with the gentle slopes of the Salomón plot, provide exceptional natural drainage. This, alongside the microclimate, allows the goblet-trained vines in the Salomón plot, cultivated in the traditional Marco Real dry-farmed system, to yield low outputs (up to 4,500 kg/ha). This low yield concentrates flavours, lending complexity and depth to the resulting wines.
«The soil brings everything for achieving this wine, its character. The chalky soil predominates which means yields are not very high and the grapes ripen slowly due to the surface layer of stones to make it permeable while at the same time releasing heat at night so that ripening is slow and continuous».
Harvest 2023
Wines from this vintage stand out for their aromatic subtlety and remarkable elegance on the palate
The 2023 growing season is remembered as a highly positive cycle for our vineyards in Fuentecén and the Riaza valley. The year started with markedly cold days, followed by a spring with temperatures aligning closely with historical averages. Summer, however, proved warmer than usual. Rainfall was erratic: April and May were dry, June brought intermittent thunderstorms, and the summer remained predominantly dry. Rains returned in September just prior to harvest, necessitating a staggered and meticulous picking schedule to achieve optimal ripeness in each parcel. Wines from this vintage stand out for their aromatic subtlety and remarkable elegance on the palate, showcasing freshness and balance achieved despite the challenging conditions.
Harvesting Salomón
Careful manual harvesting with crates
Picking is by hand and is performed with care using small crates. We make the first selection on the vine. Before the harvest those clusters which do not meet the perfect conditions of health and maturity are rejected.
The winemaker at Rippa Dorii, Ruben Pérez Cuevas, explains it in this way:
«Harvest began at dawn on the 4th of October and was completed before midday, so the grapes would arrive at the winery at the perfect temperature for crafting a wine we nurture with extreme care at every stage»
Natural pumping over
We make the wine from this plot with a technique with which we get the cap to be always soaked in must, like that old cake in the historic processes in the presses, with no mechanical procedures, natural pumping over and the fermentation temperature carefully controlled and much more even. This is all achieved by making use of the carbonic gas produced by the fermentation in the vinification process.
We chill the grapes down to 8-10 degrees so that the maceration is very subtle enabling all the colour and aroma compounds to become fixed. After four days we seed the must with indigenous yeasts from the vineyard itself to start up the first fermentation.
Fermentation continued for 19 days with daily gentle natural pressing until ready for devatting. The natural pressure of the cap itself achieves a very delicate, fragile extraction which has the virtue of obtaining very faint, beautiful aromas
Malolatic fermentation
The malolactic fermentation took place in new Iberian-oak casks (Spanish oak, Quercus pyrenaica or Pyrenean oak), with stirring twice per week. At the end, ageing was for eleven months in these same casks, where the tannins have been reaffirmed with greater length and depth.
Iberian oak
The Pyrenean oak wood (Quercus pyrenaica), the most abundant oak in Spain, has a very similar oenological quality to that brought by wine barrels made of American or French oak, according to a study conducted by scientists at the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA) and the Instituto Tecnológico Agrario de Castilla y León (ITACyL). In fact, Pyrenean oak wood has the ideal structural properties (type of grain, porosity and permeability) for use in making wine casks. Moreover, its chemical characteristics (amount of polyphenols, tannins and volatile aromatic compounds) are very similar to those found in other types of oak with recognised oenological quality, such as the Quercus petraea species from France and the USA
Rubén Pérez Cuevas explains it thus in the case of Salomón:
«We have detected that the micro-oxygenisation from Iberian oak is less and the wine needs more time to be able to polymerise the tannin and anthocyanins. But by taking longer the wine also has a longer life and is longer and deeper».
11 months in the cask /
100% iberian oak /
Vintages
Tasting
Colour.
Aroma.
A lot of very ripe, black fruit on the nose, black olives, very subtle, well-integrated wood, tobacco leaf, wild berries and very subtle spice from the oak. Complex and inviting, with hints of balsamic herbs, mineral nuances, blackcurrant and spices coming through.