Viña Sastre is a family-run winery located in the heart of Ribera del Duero in the town of La Horra. It boasts some of the oldest vineyards in the Ribera del Duero region. Jesús Sastre is the winemaker and vineyard manager, whose philosophies and winemaking talents have been a driving force of the winery.
The family-owned vineyards are mostly in the villages of La Horra and Roa, with the average vine age being more than 60 years, all trained in the traditional goblet method. Only vineyards planted prior to 1960 are considered old by the family and are destined for the single-vineyard wines. Although he does not identify himself with any particular dogma, Jesús Sastre is committed to organic farming and biodynamic agriculture principles and he has never used chemical fertilizers or pesticides in his vineyards in his 30 years at the winery. Sastre works in a naturally privileged area for organic farming, with Ribera del Duero’s low temperatures in the winter and at night, and characteristic high altitudes (around 800m) providing large temperature variations between day and night. Pruning is done in accordance with moon cycles as it has always been done in his area. He also rarely uses copper in the vineyard because it is not good for earthworms.
Grapes are hand-harvested into boxes with a selection being done in the field, followed by a very critical sorting in the winery; only the best grapes go into Viña Sastre, and the remainder is sold. His wines are always spontaneously fermented with natural yeasts from the vineyard and never fined or filtered. The wines are cold stabilized naturally by moving the wine from the barrel room to separate tanks in a part of the winery whose temperature is naturally regulated by the outdoor winter temperatures. This is all a part of Jesús’ vision for making wine in the most natural way possible. The vision is natural, or ancestral, wine at the very highest level.
- Ribera del Duero Roble
- Ribera del Duero Crianza
- Pago de Santa Cruz Ribera del Duero