General information
2. How are the wines from Ribera del Duero?
2.1 Grape varieties
2.2 Wine types
3. What to do in Ribera del Duero?
What is Ribera del Duero
Ribera del Duero is one of the most renowned wine regions in Spain. It spreads from Quintanilla de Onésimo to San Esteban de Gormaz, along the Duero (Douro) river, in the provinces of Valladolid, Burgos, Soria (and a few villages in Segovia).
Famous wines have been produced here since the Roman era. The current tradition traces its origins to the 12th century, when monks from Cluny (in Burgundy, France) started to make wine here. Later, several wineries, some of them subterranean, were established in the villages and towns along the Duero.
Between the 10th and 12th centuries, this was a border area between the Kingdom of Castile and Al-Andalus. Therefore, on the North bank of the Duero, several villages were established to stop the Muslim advance, all with a similar design, with walls and a castle. This colonisation is known as the repopulation (repoblación) of Castile.
How are Ribera del Duero wines?
Ribera del Duero is not so famous internationally as Rioja or Bordeaux, but its wines are among the best in the world. Vega-Sicilia, the exclusive Spanish wine institution that uses only very old vines is located here.
But the good thing is that you don’t have to spend much to enjoy great Ribera del Duero wines. The region also gave birth to the best wine in the world for less than $20.
The regulatory council (Consejo Regulador) of the Designation of Origin “Ribera del Duero” sets the rules a wine has to follow to be labelled as “Ribera del Duero”.
Of course, the first rule is that the wine and grape production has to be carried out within the boundaries of the Designation of Origin.
The first thing you should know is that Ribera del Duero is a red wine region. There are rosé wines produced here too, but no whites. For white wine, you can go to the nearby region of Rueda, in Valladolid.
What grape varieties are used in Ribera del Duero?
The main grape variety of Ribera del Duero is Tempranillo, the same as in Rioja and other Spanish wine regions.
All Ribera del Duero wines should contain at least 75% tempranillo (and many are 100% tempranillo). Other varieties allowed by the regulatory council in smaller quantities are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot Malbec y Garnacha Tinta (rosés can include white albillo).
In the region, there are also wineries that prefer to make wines of other varieties, like Quinta Sardonia. These are sold as “Vinos de la Tierra de Castilla y León”, and are excellent too.
What do the labels mean in Ribera del Duero wines?
Ribera del Duero wines can be designated in different ways depending on its ageing process:
“Tinto joven” (young red): no ageing or less than 12 months barrel ageing.
“Tinto crianza“: minimum ageing of 12 months in oak barrels and approximately another year in the bottle before sale.
“Tinto reserva“: aged for a minimum of 36 months, of which at least 12 months in oak barrels.
“Tinto gran reserva“: aged for a minimum of 60 months, of which at least 24 months in oak barrels.
Nevertheless, there are many wineries that choose not to follow these ageing rules, but let their oenologists decide what ageing profile best suits their wines. These wines are labelled as “Cosecha“.
But don’t think that “cosecha” are inferior to “crianza” or “reserva”… often it’s quite the opposite.
What to do in Ribera del Duero?
Tasting great wines and visiting wineries is one of the things you should do, but there is a lot more to Ribera del Duero.
The region’s cuisine is great, and it is not only the famous lechazo (suckling lamb) roasted in wood or coal-fired ovens: in Aranda de Duero there are great pinchos and tapas. But there are also many restaurants that combine tradition and modernity to perfection.
Ribera del Duero is also a region with a remarkable historical heritage. From the Roman era: the ruins of Clunia, that had the largest theatre in Hispania and the enormous mosaic of the Roman villa of Santa Cruz.
But also, between wineries and vineyards, there are some picturesque villages, where you can admire both popular architecture and monumental palaces and churches, and especially, imposing castles that dominate the Duero valley.
In a long weekend we could visit two very different wineries and the most beautiful villages from Peñafiel to Aranda de Duero. We tasted wonderful dishes with local ingredients and excellent Riberas.
Therefore, this is a trip in which we combine wine and cultural tourism, like we did in our trip to Laguardia, a mediaeval gem in Rioja.
How to arrive in Ribera del Duero
The Designation of Origin starts around 30 km East of Valladolid, the capital of Castilla y León. The A-62 motorway arrives in Valladolid, connecting with the main motorways A-6 in Tordesillas and A-1 in Burgos.
The largest city in Ribera del Duero is Aranda de Duero (Burgos). It is located 160 km North of Madrid by the A-1 motorway.
If you don’t have a car, you can arrive in Valladolid by train (there is a high-speed AVE connection to Madrid) or by bus to Aranda de Duero.
Moving around Ribera del Duero
Anyway, having a car for this trip is highly recommendable, in order to move quickly around the villages and arrive in the wineries.
If you need to rent a car, you can find the best deals of the main international companies in this search form:
National road N-122 is the main road in Ribera del Duero, running approximately parallel to the river. Driving through it, you will see the vineyards of many of the great Ribera del Duero wineries, including Vega-Sicilia.
This road has a lot of traffic, so drive carefully. Despite public demand, there is still no alternative motorway, in part to avoid damaging the vineyards.
Accommodation in Ribera del Duero
Wine tourism in Ribera del Duero is getting very popular, so there are many options for accommodation.
In this trip, we stayed in Fuente Aceña Hotel Boutique, and we really recommend it. This hotel was built in an old windmill just by the river. The staff is really friendly, rooms are calm and comfortable, they have many local wines to taste and they have a great restarurant!
If you are looking for something luxurious, there are some very charming options. Castilla Termal Monasterio de Valbuena is a hotel with spa built in a restored Gothic monastery, in Valbuena de Duero. In another trip in this are we stayed there and it is amazing! They also have a great restaurant with wood-fired oven for lechazo.
Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine is even more exclusive, inside a 15th-century abbey. It has a Michelin star restaurant (Refectorio) and very famous (and pricey) wines.
Furthermore, there are many wineries that offer accommodation, like El Lagar de Isilla, in La Vid y Barrios, a small village by the N-122. Very close, Monasterio de la Vid is also very charming and more affordable.
Ribera del Duero, Valladolid area: the "golden mile"
The westernmost part of Ribera del Duero, between Quintanilla de Onésimo and Peñafiel, is known as its golden mile, due to the high concentration of top-quality wines. Our hotel was in this area.
Vega-Sicilia, the crown jewel of Ribera del Duero is located here, specifically in Valbuena de Duero. Anyway, they don’t allow visitors in the winery.
Finca Villacreces winery tour
We visited Finca Villacreces in the morning. When you enter their vineyards from the N-122 you get this feeling of being in a private cottage – this is actually what it used to be when they bought the land. The previous owners already made wine, but at a very small scale.
Finca Villacreces is in the middle of the golden mile and it deserves this privileged location. They make 3 excellent red wines, for all budgets:
Pruno, for 11 €, was chosen by Robert Parker as best value wine in the world (he dubbed it a baby Vega-Sicilia). Personally, it is really delicious and the wine we drink most often in the last years.
Finca Villacreces, for 25 €, is more full-bodied. For the exclusive Nebro (around 150 €), the winery uses only grapes from one particular plot in the estate, that with older vines and it is aged for a longer time using very special techniques.
Obviously, the tasting after the tour does not include Nebro, so we cannot give an opinion.
Pruno and Finca Villacreces are “Cosecha” because the winery has chosen not to follow the ageing regulations to call them “Crianza”, but they are aged in oak barrels for approximately one year. Finca Villacreces is amazing, but, as Parker says, Pruno is a real bargain, (and it is lighter, so perfect for cocktails). This is why Pruno was the last wine they launched and now makes up for most of the winery’s production.
Because of the pandemic, they have reduced the size of visitor groups everywhere, but in Finca Villacreces it was even better: we had a private tour for the two of us. This was great as they make it more personal and tell you more stuff.
In Finca Villacreces, taking care of their grapes is the key. They only use grapes grown in their estate, they only use organic fertilisers and they have divided thie land in over 10 plots, each with vines of different ages to keep full control of their winemaking. Most of them are Tempranillo, but they also use some Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to make their Finca Villacreces wine.
There is actually a protected century-old forest in the middle of their vineyards, but this actually helps grape production.
In the fermentation zone of the winery, it is interesting to see the three different kinds of tanks used in modern wineries: stainless steel, wood and concrete. Steel has the lowest maintenance and best temperature control, but doesn’t add anything to the wine. Concrete fermentation tanks do not add aromas, like wooden ones, but are also porous, allowing wine micro-oxigenation, much like clay fermentation pots (e.g. Georgian qvevri).
The winery tour costs 15 € and includes a tasting of Pruno and Finca Villacreces. English tours are available. You can make a reservation writing an e-mail visitas@villacreces.com or dialling (+34) 983 680 437.
They also organise other activities, such as a bicycle tour around their estate, and even a wine party in the last weekend of June. It’s on our list!
Peñafiel
You cannot leave Ribera del Duero without visiting Peñafiel, the most beautiful village in the area.
Seriously, even if you came here to visit wineries and taste fantastic local wines, you will love its picturesque old town and imposing castle.
The castle is Peñafiel’s most famous landmark. Its origins trace back to the Moors, but the building we see today is actually the fourth castle that was erected in this high promontory, dating from the 15th century.
By then, this was not a border area any more, so it was seldom used as a defensive bastion. This is one of the reasons why it is very well preserved.
Its original triangular form reminds of a boat. Just as we said you should go to Peñafiel, you should certainly visit its castle. The view of the castle’s “prow”, the old city of Peñafiel and the Duero valley is really amazing!
The castle can only be visited with a guided tour. There are 4 daily, and it is better to book tickets in advance, following this link (we didn’t do it so we had to go back again as it was fully booked).
Tickets for the guided tour cost 6.60 € and include the Valladolid Provincial Wine Museum, which is inside the castle (there is also a Burgos Provincial Wine Museum in Roa, where the regulatory council of Ribera del Duero is located). You can take the castle tour and a wine tasting for 9.20 €.
But don’t leave once you have seen the castle, because the old town of Peñafiel is also wonderful.
The best is to go a while before sunset so you can enjoy the best light to take pictures to the castle from the village.
The easiest way to explore Peñafiel is to park your car just before crossing the bridge over river Duratón, around the Convent of Santa Clara. There is plenty of place.
From this bridge you can enjoy a nice view of the castle. Then, cross it and follow the street, slightly uphill. Here, you will find two historical churches.
First, San Miguel de Reoyo, from the late 16th c. There is a monument to the vine in its square, that complements the monument to wine just across the street.
A bit further, one of the highlights of Peñafiel: St. Paul’s Monastery (Convento de San Pablo). Its construction started in the 14th c. on the remains of an older alcázar (castle-palace). But it was finished two centuries later, delivering a beautiful contrast between the mudéjar (Gothic with great Arabic influences) apse and the plateresque (early Spanish Rennaisance) façade.
Continue up the road to reach Plaza del Coso – one of the most picturesque squares you can see in Spain. It looks like a Western film set! But it actually is the outcome of an elegant popular Castilian architecture.
All its windows are wooden, embellished with arabesques and those original wooden carvings called guardamalletas.
Some say this is the first plaza mayor in Spain, as it was built during the Middle Ages. Since the beginning, it was designed to celebrate tournaments, jousts… and later, bullfights and other events. This is why it is not paved but filled with sand.
During the town festival, novilladas (games with young bulls) are celebrated. A bullring is set in the square, and two young bulls are set free: one inside the ring and one outside. There are people who have the right to use the windows in the square to enjoy events that take place here.
Take the street on the top left corner facing the castle to exit Plaza del Coso towards the rest of Peñafiel old town.
This is called Calle Derecha al Coso (Straight to the Coso Street). It has some nice old houses and a lot of bars where you can have some wines and tapas.
This street ends in Plaza de España, an square with arcades and lots of bars with terraces – linger around here for the atmosphere.
There rather ugly town hall is in this square, as well as St. Mary’s Church (Iglesia de Santa María), where the town council used to meet.
Continue straight through Plaza de España to reach the Clock Tower of Peñafiel. This was the bell tower of a Romanesque Church that isn’t there any more.
Fuente Aceña: Modern Castilian cuisine
Our hotel, Fuente Aceña, has an amazing restaurant. They serve modern cuisine based on the Castilian tradition with local ingredients. It is true that their menu is not so large, but everything is really good (and they offered us two specials not usually in the menu). We had dinner our first night here and lunch on the next day.
Service is great, very friendly, including the sommelier, who recommends you the best wine in their huge Ribera del Duero wine menu according to your tastes and budget. We followed his advice and tasted two wines from local small wineries that we loved: Baden Numen Roble (a young red wine) and Sarmentero Vendimia Seleccionada (a 12-month aged cosecha)
Even if you don’t stay in the hotel, we really recommend you to eat here one day. A meal with a Ribera del Duero crianza is around 35-40 € per person.
If you stay in the hotel, you don’t have to finish your bottle of wine – just take it and enjoy it later in your room or by the Duero… that’s what we did.
Ribera del Duero in Burgos
The Ribera del Duero region continues East along the province of Burgos. The headquarters of the regulating council of Ribera del Duero Designation of Origin are here, in Roa. There are also a lot of wineries around, great food and some historical villages that deserve a visit.
Aranda de Duero
With 32.000 population, Aranda de Duero is the largest town in Ribera del Duero. When travelling in the A-1, many people stop in Aranda just to eat a lechazo (suckling lamb) in one of its asadores (restaurants with a large coal or wood-fired oven to roast them). They are roasted slowly during the whole morning, so in the best places you have to order it in advance.
But Aranda is also a great place for pinchos and tapas!
In a country with beautiful historical old towns, Aranda’s is nothing special. Anyway, it is nice to have a walk around central Aranda: it is pleasant and there are some remarkable buildings.
Plaza del Trigo (Wheat Square) is one of the most picturesque, it reminded us to Cinema Paradiso. Don’t miss the late Gothic St. Mary’s Church neither.
But the most interesting thing of Aranda is its historical underground winery network. A 1503 town map documented 7 km of underground wine galleries in the town!
These were excavated 9 to 13 metres deep, with clay vaults to keep a constant humidity and temperature between 10 and 12 ºC.
Underground wineries were abandoned in the 18th c. Now they have been reopened as museums. Unlike in Laguardia (in Rioja Alavesa), none of them are used to age wine any more.
Next to Plaza de Santa María, there is an underground winery where they organise guided tours for 4,90 €, with a glass of wine.
But the easiest way of visiting one of these is eating some tapas or lechazo in El Lagar de Isilla – the restaurant is on top of an underground winery that you can visit for free.
Where to eat in Aranda de Duero
In El Lagar de Isilla there are great pinchos and tapas. Their rocher of morcilla de Aranda is very original and tasty. Their chuletas de lechazo (suckling lamb chops) served on coal embers from their oven are really good.
Pinchos and tapas are served in the bar area. If you want to eat lechazo, you should go inside the restaurant area, and it is better to book a table.
Another day we ate in the place next door: Casa Florencio. We can say this is another place you should include in your tapas route in Aranda: probably the best foie gras pincho we have tried outside of the Basque Country. They have a wide variety of good tapas.
July is pretty hot around here so we were not feeling like eating lechazo, but seeing that oven we would like to go back and try it. We anyway ate lamb in other forms: inside croquetas and some lamb mollejas (the most delicate lamb offal, something you must taste if you travel to Castile – trust us, if you like lamb you will love it).
Morcilla is a typical Spanish blood sausage. A bit like black pudding, but much better, seriously. Burgos Morcilla it is made with onion and rice, and is the most widespread morcilla style in Spain.
But Aranda de Duero has its own morcilla variety: it is similar to Burgos’ but they change the spices, adding cumin and a dash of cinnamon.
They also boil it twice (before and after putting it into the tripe). It seems this helps digestion of such a simple but great dish. Another thing you must also taste around here!
Gumiel de Izán
Gumiel de Izán is 15 km North of Aranda de Duero, by the A-1 motorway. This is a typical Castilian village of only 550 population.
In its main square (plaza mayor), you will be surprised by a very monumental church for such a small village: St. Mary’s Church (Iglesia de Santa María).
Gumiel de Izán has another singular monument, albeit much more modern.
Portia, the most modern winery in Ribera del Duero
Just outside Gumiel de Izán you will find the most modern winery in Ribera del Duero: Portia. The price of the winery tour is 14 €, including wine tasting. Follow this link to make a reservation.
Let’s be honest, no one visits Portia to taste good wines. Their regular wines are quite cheap and mediocre for Ribera del Duero. The reason to come here is to visit the exceptional architecture of the only winery in the world designed by Norman Foster.
The new Portia wine cellar was opened in 2010 and Foster and his time spent the wine harvest during 2 years in the company’s winery in Rioja, in order to learn about the winemaking process in order to understand the industry’s needs.
Thus, they build a beautiful and functional building, optimised for winemaking. The winery has a three-legged shape, so that each of the three main parts of wine production takes place in one of its legs: fermenting, barrel ageing and storage.
The roof of the winery is designed so that trucks can drive along it and deposit the grapes in the middle of the structure, where grapes are pressed to extract the wort.
The interior of each area was carefully designed. The ageing zone combines tradition and modern architecture perfectly, but the most original part is the bottle storage leg, inspired in a library!
In this area, we would have liked to visit Pago de los Capellanes, in Pedrosa de Duero, near Roa. Their wines are among the best of the Burgos Ribera del Duero and some friends had recommended us the winery tour.
Peñaranda de Duero
Peñaranda de Duero is 20 km East of Aranda de Duero, on the shores of river Arandilla. To get there, you will drive through a narrow road surrounded by vineyards.
Peñaranda was awarded the honour of being the “most beautiful village with less than 1000 population in Castilla y León”.
It is a archetype Castilian repopulation village in this area, with a defensive wall and a castle built to stop the Moors’ advance. Its paved streets and traditional Castilian architecture take you a couple of centuries back.
Furthermore, in its main square (plaza mayor), you will find two beautiful historical buildings.
Peñaranda de Duero has the oldest functioning pharmacy in Spain, established in the 18th century. It is currently run by the eighth generation of the family.
On one side of the plaza mayor stands the palace of Avellaneda (or of the Counts of Miranda), from the 16th c. It has a beautiful plateresque stone façade. Its interior is amazing, with a typical Spanish Rennaisance patio, mudéjar stuccos and some of the best carved wooden ceilings in the area.
It’s a pity that we could not go inside the palace this time as it can only be visited with a guided tour (at 11:00, 13:00, 16:30 y 18:00, Tue-Sat; Sun only 11h and 13h. 4 €).
On the other side of the square, the Ex-Collegiate Church of St. Anne (Ex-Colegiata de Santa Ana) built from the 16th to the 18th c. Even if this had not been a border area for a long time by then, it still looks a bit like a castle.
In the middle of the square you can see the municipality’s rollo.
In Castile, a rollo is a stone column that was only erected in those towns that had a mayor, i.e. full jurisdiction to impose death sentences and other criminal penalties.
Actually, the rollo was used to execute death penalties, as well as minor ones.
In Spanish America, the first act upon founding a new town was erecting a rollo.
Ribera del Duero still continues...
… but we didn’t have time for more. Next time!
Ribera del Duero continues along the province of Soria, until mediaeval San Esteban de Gormaz (45 km East of Aranda de Duero). This area is less known because it doesn’t have such big wineries as the provinces of Valladolid and Burgos, but it is well worth a visit.
It has historical old towns and some renowned wineries such as Dominio de Atauta.
Thus we had a great weekend in Ribera del Duero, driving through vineyards, enjoying its wines and cuisine, its villages and castles.
We went back home with a lot of wine in the trunk and thinking about going back again!
