Bernardo Estévez 
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Bernardo Estévez returned to his family’s heritage of viticulture after an earlier career as an auto mechanic in Vigo. Always drawn to wine, he planted his first vines in 2001 in his grandparents’ hometown of Arnoia. At the junction of the Miño and Arnoia rivers near the Portuguese border, Arnoia is the most important town in the south of the Ribeiro D.O. for wine production. Since moving back in 2009, Bernardo has been working with 3 hectares of mixed white and red varieties that he owns around Arnoia, practicing organic and biodynamic viticultural techniques and making small quantities of wine. 
 
The Ribeiro D.O. is a fascinating, ancient wine region along the Miño river, about 45 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Grape growing and winemaking here dates back millenia to the 2nd century BCE; the granite terraces along the riverbanks tell the stories of the labors of generations of viticultores. Known historically for its Vinos Tostados (unfortified sweet wines made from raisinated grapes - an intensely labor-intensive and low-yielding process), the area’s fortunes declined in the 19th century as the wines of Jerez increasingly dominated the Spanish Atlantic wine trade and first Oïdium or powdery mildew (in 1853), then Mildium or downy mildew (1886), and, finally, Phylloxera (1890) arrived from the Americas, and a series of political and social crises impacted all of Spain in the first half of the 20th century. In the wake of civil war, economic downturn, and political repression in the 1930s-60s, many people left the Galician countryside for cities in Spain and elsewhere.
 
The area’s struggle with invasive pests is particularly remarkable. Phylloxera was almost universally devastating when it arrived in European wine regions and required major changes in viticulture to protect vines, but the first two fungal invasions – Oïdium (Oidium tuckeri) and Mildium (Plasmopara viticola) – deserve a more thorough exploration to understand how they continue to impact winemaking in Ribeiro and Galicia and inform Bernardo Estévez’s work. Both fungi originate in North America, in warm, humid environments with relatively mild winters; the pests thrive in similar environments, like the Ribeiro region. Climate change, particularly the tendency towards warmer winters, has amplified these similarities, as has the construction of hydroelectric dams along the Miño river. Oidium and Mildium thrive in this environment and European Vitis vinifera vines lack any evolved resistance to the pests due to their separate evolutionary development. The prevalence and destructiveness of Oïdium and Mildium has made controlling them perhaps the central struggle of viticulture in this part of Galicia. 
 
The most common method for combatting fungal infection is fungicide: typically, copper- and sulfur-based treatments, but also other chemical compounds. These regular chemical treatments have long lasting negative impacts for soils, and growing grapes without them is one of the central goals of Bernardo Estévez’s work. Inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka, biodynamics, regenerative agriculture and other sources, Bernardo has been working to strengthen the soils, adjust his vineyard practices, and employ natural treatments to resist fungal pressures and other perils. In his parcels, the soils are never worked, special mycological treatments are used, and prunes carefully in order to shade and protect his rejuvenated, healthy soils. His work involves treks into the forested ravines around Arnoia to find untouched soils, mushrooms, and microorganisms; he cultures acidolactic bacteria from these pristine soils and organisms and ferments biofertilizers to add to the soils in his parcels to combat attacks from fungi and insects. 
 
Bernardo’s labor-intensive, natural approach to viticulture is both slow and risky. His regenerative practices are bearing fruit, but he has struggled through many difficult vintages with disastrously low yields to reach this point. With only roughly 3 hectares of vines, the most he can hope to produce is roughly 7,500 bottles - in hard years, he makes less than 2,000.  Work in the cellar is simple and hands off, with short macerations for the reds, whole cluster pressing for the whites, and neutral vessels. There’s no fining or filtering, and the wines see only a small addition of sulfur. 

The Wines

Chanseulus Castes Branca is from 22-100-year-old vines of Lado, Treixadura, Albillo, Albilla, Loureira, and Godello around the town of Arnoia. The vines are planted on granite and shale soils in ancient terraces at 125-175 meters of elevation. The grapes were hand harvested and pressed whole cluster to a 3000L chestnut foudre to ferment at a controlled temperature (17° C). After fermentation, the wine rested in the same vessel for 8 months before bottling without fining or filtering and with only a small addition of SO2.

Chanselus Planeta is from 12-90-year-old vines of Caiño Longo, Caiño Bavo, Caiño da Terra, Caiño Redondo, Carabuñeira, Ferrol, Espadeiro, Corbillon, Tinta Amarela, Brancellao, and Sousón around the town of Arnoia. The vines are planted on granite and shale soils in ancient terraces at 125-175 meters of elevation. The grapes were hand harvested, destemmed, and macerated on the skins for 48 hours before pressing with a manual press to ferment in a mixture of 300L and 500L used French oak and chestnut barrels. The wine rests in those vessels for 6 months after fermentation before bottling without fining, filtering, and with only a small addition of SO2.

Location

General Info

  • Founded: 2009
  • Region: Galicia
  • Appellation: Ribeiro
  • Village: Arnoia
  • Elevation: 120-250 meters
  • Climate: Atlantic
  • Soils: Granitic
  • Vineyard Land: 3 Ha
  • Farming: Biodynamic
  • Grower: Bernardo Estévez

The Cellar

Gallery