Veronica Ortega Bierzo - Quite

This cuvée is crafted from various parcels of organically tended vines around Valtuille de Abajo. Averaging 80 years old, the vines are planted in sandy, iron-rich clay soils and yield about 25 hectoliters per hectare. The wine undergoes a 15-day cuvaison and is aged for seven to nine months, half in 800-liter amphoras and half in 2-3-year-old barrels, with a total SO2 of 40mg/l. It’s a wine that truly punches above its weight, offering a spicy and juicy profile reminiscent of Pineau D'Aunis.

Veronica Ortega grew up in Cadiz with five elder brothers and a famous bullfighting father. Catching the wine bug in the 2000s, she moved to Priorat to work with Alvaro Palacios and Daphné Glorian (Clos Erasmus). She then gained experience at Burn Cottage in Central Otago, Niepoort in the Douro, Comte Armand, a season at DRC in Burgundy, and Domaine Combier in Crozes. Returning to Spain, she collaborated with Raúl Perez in Bierzo, experimenting in his cellar before launching her own project in 2012. Veronica has gradually assembled her 5.7 hectares of old vines through leasing and buying, though buying plots has been challenging as locals prefer to keep their land unused rather than sell it. The support and network of her friend Ricardo Palacios (Descendientes J. Palacios) were instrumental in securing top terroirs.

Veronica practices organic viticulture and is in the process of converting to biodynamics. Most of her wines are partly aged in amphora, with the balance in 228-liter oak barrels, as she appreciates the purity and texture this method imparts to the fruit. She uses whole bunches for her single-vineyard wines, while Quite is destalked, and she keeps sulfur levels as low as possible—between 25 to 40mg/l depending on the wine's stability.