He is going to continue to concentrate on the uniqueness of our wines.
INTERVIEW WITH JOSÃ? MANUEL RODRIGUEZ, PRESIDENT OF THE C.R.D.O.R.S
INTERVIEW WITH JOSÃ? MANUEL RODRÃGUEZ, PRESIDENT OF THE REGULATORY COUNCIL D.O.R.S. (07/07/2008)
He is going to continue to concentrate on the uniqueness of our wines.
The heavy rain that fell at the end of spring, will it affect the grape harvest this year?
The rains fell at the wrong time so it will effect the harvest, but we have to wait and see how much. It may only be a small reduction in the harvest but at the moment it is hard to say, in any case after 2007 which was a year of complex weather patterns, the grape growers were taking extra care of the vines and they are continuing to do so. The rain at the wrong time didn´t take them by surprise.
Ribeira Sacra has already held two tastings of the wine from last years harvest, the qualifying tasting and the prize for the best wines of the D.O., for the latter a new category was established for wines aged in wooden barrels. What part do these aged wines play at present in the D. O.?
The barrel-aged wines are a new line within the D.O. which has come from work taking place for some time now in some of the bodegas. At present, twenty bodegas produce wine that is aged in barrels and two bodegas work exclusively with this type of wine. The market and the wine critics speak well of this type of wine in the Ribeira Sacra. We will see in the next few years how it fairs on the market, but the expectations are good and we can already confirm that you can make MencÃa wine aged in barrels with excellent results.
Ribeira Sacra has worked a lot to improve the wines and increase its market potential, how do you see the future?
We have to concentrate on our identity. Ribeira Sacra has distinctive wines, landscape, gastronomy, architecture.... and to improve our image we have to continue concentrating on the uniqueness of our wines. This is the aim of the work.
Is Ribeira Sacra a denominación that is going to make a map of the vineyards indicating where the best vineyards are to be found?
In countries like France it is common to have the vineyards listed by their functional qualities such as area of land, aspect, and gradient, Ribeira Sacra could follow this pattern. It is a good thing to do. It is a way of preserving the vineyards that are more difficult to work, and where it is difficult to take out the grapes; these grapes will fetch a higher a price and the productivity of the vineyards will be maintained. In the Ribeira Sacra we could make a map of vineyards, but not by subregions, but by vineyards that could be in any subregion, but that has information on the steepness of the gradients, the aspect, the type of labour and the output per hectare. It is a project that is seen as worthwhile by everybody but it will take time.