Viños Valtuille
Spain
Offering an unprecedented range of quality, diversity, and value-driven wines from Spain's Iberian Peninsula
Located in the small village of Valtuille de Abajo in Bierzo, Spain, Viños Valtuille is a small family winery that was founded in 1999. Founder Dimas García and his wife Isabel had been upholding a family grape growing tradition that began in 1910 with the purchase of the García family’s first vineyard in an area called Valdoneje. After decades of working their own vineyards, Dimas and Isabel decided to build their own winery and place it in one of the hills surrounding Valtuille de Abajo, in the area of La Estacada - their favorite place in Valtuille. The reason for their new winery venture was simply to provide a better future for their children.
The García family currently grows 30 acres of vineyards scattered over 90 different plots with elevations ranging from 1,900 to 2,300 feet. Roughly half of the vineyards are planted to Old Vine Mencía, a varietal that Bierzo is especially known for, crafting wines with notable depth and a distinctive earthy edge.
Today, Vinos Valtuille is growing and thriving. The winery is now managed by two of Dimas and Isabel’s four children - Marcos and Elena. While Marcos oversees the vineyard and winemaking, Elena is in charge of administration and sales. The brother and sister work closely together to continue producing terroir-driven wines that show the character of their family’s Valtuille de Abajo vineyard. The wines are made in limited production in their gravity-fed winery and are delicately aged in a special underground barrel room until they are ready for release.
We are happy to present three special bottlings from Vinos Valtuille to our International Wine Club, Gold Wine Club, and Garagiste Wine Club members and hope you enjoy this introduction to the exciting region of Bierzo, Spain. Salud!
Map of the area
Bierzo, Spain
Arguably Spain’s most exciting wine region, Bierzo is a small, historic Denominacion de Origin in northwest Spain, specifically located on the border of Castilla y Leon and Galicia. Bierzo was first cultivated by the Romans 2,000 years ago, but it has just recently catapulted into the spotlight, most notably due to the Mencía wine grape that accounts for nearly 80% of the grapes planted here. Mencía was once believed to be related to Cabernet Franc, and the wines it is capable of producing are superb (especially the Old Vine Mencía)- with purity of fruit, excellent structure, fine balance, and incredible versatility - not to mention the excellent value.
Geographically, Bierzo is a fraction of the size of Spain’s well-known wine regions of Rioja, Ribera del Duero, and La Mancha. Approximately 3,000 acres are planted to vineyards in the tiny region that is compiled of small valleys surrounded by mountains. Only 74 wineries operate in Bierzo, although only half are commercial and serious about exporting - which explains why these wines are so highly sought after and hard to find. The milder temperatures and mineral-rich soils here create an ideal growing environment for the beautiful wines of Bierzo.
Spain: Fun Facts
• Spain is home to around 600 grape varieties, though roughly only 20 are used in the production of the vast majority of wines.
• Spain has the largest vineyard area of all major vine-growing countries in the world, with over 2.3 million acres of grapevines planted. This is 13% of the world’s vineyards!
• A very Old World! It is thought that vines were growing in Spain long before Cadiz was established as a trading post in 1100 B.C.
