Producer: La Senda

Diego Losada

Where?

Located in the northwest of the province of León, El Bierzo is a region bordered by Asturias to the north and Galicia to the west. Two pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela cross it: the Camino Francés and the Camino de Invierno. Pilgrims can admire its magnificent landscapes, where vineyards cover the hilltops. These vines have been here for a long time: after the phylloxera crisis in the second half of the 19th century, this small region, where viticulture dates back to Roman times, was so traumatized that vines were not replanted until the mid-20th century. And, unlike elsewhere, there was no massive uprooting, giving these vines an average age of forty to seventy years. Le Bierzo is therefore one of the wine-growing regions in Spain with the most old vines. Setting this scene is essential to understanding La Senda.

A local boy, born in Ponferrada, the main town of the northern Bierzo, Diego was never one for compromise. A radical, passionate about freedom and rigor, he first applied this disposition to music in the heavy metal band he formed with his high school friends. He would later devote this same passion to wine, studying organic chemistry at university and learning the scientific aspects of viticulture. But the scientific rigidity and conventional methods he discovered on a few estates where he worked did not satisfy him. Drawn to a viticulture closer to the land, Diego reclaimed a few plots to showcase the terroir of Le Bierzo in the most natural way possible. He had PURE WINE tattooed on the first few knuckles of his fingers and, in 2012, created the La Senda estate, whose name means "the path," on the outskirts of his hometown. His wines would be like him: honest, frank, natural, and expressive. Lacking the appellation of origin, they are a pure reflection of their soils and climate, the personality and energy of their creator.

Terroir, plots, and grape varieties

Diego cultivates his plots of old vines (at least fifty years old and goblet-pruned) on several sites in Le Bierzo, most often on hillsides or valley sides. Yields are low, the slopes steep, and the work difficult. The climate doesn't help: the winter is harsh and long, the summer short and often humid (the ocean is not far away). The soils are poor in organic matter but rich in minerals—clay, limestone, shale, iron, quartz, and even a little gold, a precious metal once mined in El Bierzo.

The grape varieties are local, centered around Mencia, the typical red variety of El Bierzo, whose origins long remained obscure. It has been linked to Cabernet Franc, but it has recently been established that it descends, somehow, from the Jura Trousseau. It is a teinturier and aromatic grape, with aromas of cocoa, spices, and black cherry. Other red grape varieties are Alicante Bouschet and Trousseau (locally called Bastardo); the white varieties are Doña Blanca, Palomino, Godello, and a small proportion of Malvasia (Malvasia). According to an ancient tradition, red and white varieties are sometimes planted and vinified together.

Growing Methods

Diego is committed to a biodynamic and natural approach, intuitive and uncompromising. He likes to compare viticulture to raising a child, who, while needing freedom to develop their personality, remains vulnerable. Thus, he intervenes as little as possible in the vineyard, but he never loses sight of it. He works it exclusively by hand and cares for it with biodynamic preparations such as horsetail decoctions, with a touch of Bordeaux mixture only when necessary. Local vegetation grows freely in the vines, and green harvesting serves to reduce yields to one and a half kilograms per vine, as opposed to the six or seven kilos normally obtained.

Vinification

In the winery, too, Diego believes that wine needs time and space, to breathe. His vintages, whose macerations are generally gentle and brief—the partially destemmed harvest rests for a few days before pressing—are aged in concrete vats or old chestnut or French oak barrels. He doesn't particularly like stainless steel, an inert material that, according to him, destroys the naturalness of wines. He avoids any punching down or stirring and does not fining, filter, or add sulfites.

The Wines

La Senda's wines are intensely personal and melodic, as if the winemaker were sharing his musical inspiration with them. They are pure, lively, fresh, and mineral. The reds reflect the aromatic and flavorful richness of the Mencia grape variety: fresh, balanced, expressive, and easy to drink, they display a beautiful translucent dark garnet color and manage to be supple and smooth while retaining texture and density. Their aromas are those of Bierzo and its local grape varieties: black fruits, fresh earth, cocoa, and black pepper. Diego also makes a white wine, In a Gadda-Da-Vida, a beautiful bouquet of white fruits with an electric vibrancy.