Bodega Sommos: A Super Natural Winery
Bodega Sommos, an idyll of natural wine
There are wineries, and there is the Bodega Sommos, located in north-central Spain, just south of the Pyrenees in rural Aragon. For those (like me) whose knowledge of Spain is limited to the most iconic locations, exploring Aragon has come as a complete and wonderful surprise.
It is a vast and geographically diverse region, and of historical significance to the British because of Catherine and her relationship with King Henry VIII; and that the pomegranate happened to be her symbol.
Although betrothed to Prince Arthur (Henry’s brother) at the tender age of three, and married when she reached a more respectable eighteen, her Spanish life was spent with her parents (Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand (or Aragon)) wandering around the country fighting other kingdoms; not her, obviously, but she would have wandered along with the family.
And so she probably had little appreciation of the beauty and diversity of her homeland, Aragon, which is a pity. Because it is a wonderful region of a wonderful country, and the Bodega Sommos is a crowning jewel.
I visited by chance; colleagues from Tbilisi had gone to the winery during a wine tourism conference in Barcelona, and had encouraged me to visit; I was planning a little wander thorough the Pyrenees with my brother, Rik anyhow, and so after contacting Blanca Galino Sanz, the most effervescent and knowledgeable winery representative it has ever been my pleasure to meet, a date and time were set (noon, on May 4th, as it happened), and off we drove through the mountains to keep the engagement.
And my goodness, am I glad that we did. Simply approaching the property is overwhelming. Spanish roads are wonderful, and one turns left by turning right; well, instead of blocking the highway, one is led off to the right and turned to cross the highway from a right angle, and it was at this moment that the full significance of the Bodega Sommos came into view.
When one is visiting a “natural winery”, there is an image of artisans, pretty frocks billowing in the gentle breezes, a slightly ramshackle but homely winery and a convivial tasting. Well, let me tell you that there is nothing ramshackle about Sommos; it is a fabulous building, designed in 2008 just in time to go bankrupt in the Spanish meltdown, but reignited in 2011 and now running on all cylinders.
They grown a lot of grapes. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir as one might expect, but surprisingly, also a Gewurztraminer, one of my favourite grapes, but completely unexpected here. The grape’s success was due, we were advised, to the cold and wet winters, and the proximity to the mountains.
Their reds are the traditional Merlots, Sauvignons and Tempranillos, and all grown with a meticulous eye for detail about every single thing that one could imagine affecting the crops. For this is a “natural winery”, organic, if you like, and uses no pesticides or chemicals in the production of their wines.
In lieu of pesticides, pheromones are used to so erotically exhaust the pest-bugs, they fall motionless to the ground instead of spreading disease. Wild flowers are grown (or at least they allow wild flowers to flourish), and this melange seem to keep the meticulous vines healthy, happy and ready to please. Which is good, given that the bodega cost somewhere in the region of €120 million to create.
They harvest gently; large drums of grapes arrive at the winery and are gently jiggled through filters that reject those of the wrong colour, shape or size and allow only the perfect fruit to drop into the vast fermentation tanks; the tanks, of either 16,000 or 32,000 litres do their thing before they are further mixed.
Not by any crude whisk, but by removing the bottom third of the grapes and dropping them back on top to crush the luckier ones that had been lying at the top of the heap; mixed by gravity, the primary source of force in the bodega. This tactic, using only the pull-of-the-earth certainly seems to work, although gazing down to the depths of the 50 metre tanks one marvels at the sheer quantity of fruit that gets processed.
Actually, it comes to about 6,000,000 litres of wine each year, the sale of which goes some way to making a dent into the €120 million investment, and the twenty-five year-round staff who keep this wonderful machine ticking over in harmony with the order of things (as St. Augustine would have probably said).
My favourite part of the bodega is Area 51; it is the experimental part of the bodega where 51, 100 and 200 litre tanks of secret, experimental creations are furtively fusing in the hope of finding the prefect recipe. Judging by the products that we sampled, these are not wasted efforts.
It is a fine winery; ranked as the “2nd Wonder of the Wine World” by The Drinks Business magazine, a journal of the serious tippler, and as a visitor, overwhelming on many levels. It is architecturally stunning; sympathetic to its environment and although quite dramatically built, it retains the warmth of a more traditional Spanish Bodega.
Perhaps it was Blanca, whose care and guidance enthralled us, and whose generosity in the dining room overwhelmed us, but perhaps it is that secret ingredient that all wineries seek.
For making wine is more than science; it is an art. It is always part magic and part sorcery. Fine grapes, perfect science, first-class facilities and ideal weather do their part, but it is the addition of that supernatural supplement that makes a truly great wine.
And the supernatural is at Bodega Sommos in abundance.