Bertrand Sourdais farms ungrafted Tinto Fino across Atauta parcels in the Soria sector of Ribera del Duero.
The producer
Bertrand Sourdais's personal Dominio de Es project works in Atauta, in the Soria sector of Ribera del Duero. Its vines are ungrafted Tinto Fino, also known as Tempranillo, on limestone, sand with limestone, and clay with limestone. The range has central Viñas Viejas de Soria and parcel wines Carravilla, La Mata, and La Diva. Farming excludes chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides and uses biodynamic practices.
Known for
Ungrafted Tinto Fino parcel wines
Notable facts
Sourdais founded Dominio de Es in 2011.
The project centers on 25 parcels totaling 3.5 hectares, all in Atauta.
Viñas Viejas de Soria comes from 24 microparcels totaling 2.69 hectares at 950 to 1,000 metres.
The vineyards exclude chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides and use biodynamic practices.
The story
Carravilla Leaves Viñas Viejas
In the 2019 vintage, a parcel that had previously gone into Viñas Viejas was vinified separately and named Carravilla. The south facing site has a high limestone content. Separate vinification keeps the fruit apart from the central wine during fermentation and ageing, so the parcel can be bottled under its own name. Carravilla sits alongside La Mata and La Diva in the three wine single parcel hierarchy. The parcel's earlier role in Viñas Viejas remains part of the bottle's history, while the 2019 harvest marks the first separate Carravilla bottling.
From the atlas
Dominio de Es
Bertrand Sourdais's personal project in Atauta, in the Soria sector of Ribera del Duero, built around ungrafted Tinto Fino and parcel wines.
At A Glance
Field
Detail
Region
Soria sector of Ribera del Duero
Village
Atauta
Main grape
Tinto Fino, also called Tempranillo
Signature wine
Viñas Viejas de Soria
Defining feature
Ungrafted vines on limestone, sand with limestone, and clay with limestone
The Producer
From 1999 through 2010, Bertrand Sourdais helped create Dominio de Atauta and served as its technical director. He founded Bodegas Antídoto with others in 2010, then founded his personal Dominio de Es project in 2011.
The project centers on 25 parcels totaling 3.5 hectares, all in Atauta, and produces about 10,000 bottles. Its core grape is ungrafted Tinto Fino, also called Tempranillo, planted across limestone, sand with limestone, and clay with limestone soils. Viñas Viejas uses some whole clusters, while wines from individual sites are normally destemmed. Whole clusters retain the stems during fermentation, which can add perfume and tannin; destemming removes that stem material.
Place
Atauta sits in the Soria sector of Ribera del Duero, where altitude corresponds with changes in the ground beneath the vines. The estate works across pure limestone, pure sand with limestone, and pure clay with limestone.
The same ungrafted Tinto Fino therefore grows in several physical settings within one village. The vineyard project is tied to Atauta rather than spread across the wider Ribera del Duero region.
Wines
Dominio de Es has a central wine, Viñas Viejas de Soria, and a three wine single parcel hierarchy of Carravilla, La Mata, and La Diva. Viñas Viejas comes from vineyards Sourdais regards as Atauta premier cru, with a predominance of calcareous sands.
Viñas Viejas de Soria 2020 comes from 24 microparcels totaling 2.69 hectares at 950 to 1,000 metres. It includes Albillo Mayor, Alicante Bouschet, and Tinto Fino and is raised in French oak Burgundy barrels. The wine showed plum, black cherry, blueberry, cassis, bourbon vanilla, and herbal nuances, with a balanced palate and fine grained chalky tannins.
Carravilla is a south facing parcel with high limestone content. La Mata comes from an old vineyard recorded in the 1904 land register, principally Tinto Fino with 2% Albillo. La Diva is a 0.3 hectare, pre phylloxera parcel of Tinto Fino and Albillo on pure sand over limestone rock.
Final Word
The vineyards are farmed without chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides and with biodynamic practices. Dominio de Es keeps its work within the Atauta landscape, where ungrafted vines occupy several limestone based soils.