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Barcelona Fairfield’s Brad Haywood wraps up the March Spain trip:
This morning we left the late baroque cosmopolitan avenues of Spain’s former Imperial Capital of Valladolid to venture off into ancient and more sacred lands. Bierzo and Ribiera Sacra required taking roads less traveled and seeing lands more harmonious and more evocative. The meseta gave way to snow-capped mountains and rugged terrain where every turn presented some new wondrous eye candy of nature. My companions were as amazed as I to see vineyards that defy all understanding and to meet winemakers who seemed unphased by how much effort their beautiful crisp wines take to make.
Slate roofs and head-high brussels stalks became the norm as we entered Mencia country. We also spotted our first pergolas. The Troubadours of San Estephan winery were kind enough in all their exuberance to rescue us when we got lost. We never received a more energetic welcome! They were so excited to show us their tenderly treated vineyards that almost four hours elapsed before they led our women to a bathroom. That’s a partially clothed story in itself. Who knew Spaniards were so hairless?! We were treated to our first outdoor vineyard tasting and experienced some racy young Mencias from their proud line. One of their vineyards was half destroyed when the Autovia was constructed, but these hobbyists seized the opportunity to plant new vines and elaborate on their refreshing style. That was only to be outdone by their guitar and mandolin reprise of Spanish (and one Cuban!) classics, and their unmatched ability to toast!
The vineyards also demonstrated the delicate balance between old and new. Wire fencing defended their tender vines from wild boar encroachment and the paper industry’s vacuum-filling plantings of fast-growing pines infested with ant nests. They told us vineyards, as recently as fifty years ago, stretched as far as the eye can see. There was a quiet lamentation in their nostalgic words.
Bierzo reluctantly allowed us to leave, albeit with bellies full of wine and Paella to rival the best, also some of the most unforgettable memories of the trip. Imagine my surprise when the ante was raised and we arrived at the 2000 –year-old terraces of Ribeira Sacra and its surreal landscape, much of which was only available by river. Abadia da Cova warmed our hearts with hospitality and beauty. One can’t help but reflect when confronted with something so beautiful and peaceful. I can only imagine the difficulty I will have assimilating back into the mainstream after being so relaxed and spoiled.
This portion of our journey was particularly challenging for many of us as we continued to get to know each other and open up further. It was also challenging for JP, who was locked into the bathroom of the winery for a few minutes until we remembered him. When you get to know people you may hear things you may not want to hear, but once trust is gained there may be things you need to hear. Personal grow occurs in such situations.
We were also fortunate enough to make a pitstop in Valdeoras where Dominic spent the first ten years of his life. He told us stories of the arrival of the railroad and how children were “loaned out” to childless relatives for agrarian labor as happened to him. That was how he met his wife. The hillside was riddled with small abandoned and somewhat inaccessible communities, and even more abandoned vineyards. People left to seek new lives in cities, but now momentum is gaining in vineyard reclamation projects and local wines seem to be growing in popularity. For the amount of empty vineyards we saw though, it doesn’t seem likely to ever reach it’s former productivity with such a dramatic reduction of local inhabitants.
The stars were out tonight with Venus and Jupiter showing brightly near the moon and the Pleiades. Sometimes places like these demonstrate the beauty and harshness of reality. Sometimes I prefer dreams. Sometimes dreaming about getting away or getting back to nature challenges me to reflect on what I am doing and the goals I’ve set for myself. Nature is aggressively evocative like that and challenges many of the ideas we have built our deepest beliefs on.
San Estephan challenged the choice to use science over intuition in winemaking diverging from several of the gigantic wineries we saw. Abadia da Cova defied logic and gravity convincing me that the best things never change. In some ways we are no better or smarter than the ancients who also worked this land. And being in a van with six other people challenges the boundary between a person and their work, suggesting that in the best of times the two may not be mutually exclusive. We can only be bigger and better for our travels. We cannot take the landscape or people with us, only their bottles and the lessons they taught.