Laura Lorenzo/ Daterra Camino de la Frontera Tinto- so. completely. compelling.

Producer: DaTerra Viticultores — Laura Lorenzo
Country: Galicia, Spain
Region: Ribeira Sacra
Varietal: Juan Garcia, Rufete, Bobal, Mencía, and Bastardo
 
“No one has seen a woman like this in the vines of Galicia, and I’m not sure they’re ready for her.”– Alice Feiring 
 
Camino de la Frontera Tinto comes from Angel Mayor’s ancient, northwest-facing vineyard in the Parque Natural de Los Arribes del Duero, planted to mostly Juan Garcia & Tinta Madrid (aka Tempranillo) balanced by other indigenous varieties. The grapes are hand-harvested, 50% foot-trodden whole-cluster and 50% destemmed, wild yeast fermented in used 500L French oak barrels and a new 2000L foudre with about 2 weeks of skin maceration, then raised in the same vessels for 12 months.
 
For her estate vineyards, Laura describes her farming as “agro-ecology with minimal impact.” She works with techniques that nurture life in the soils that have been decimated by years of industrial agriculture, to create a healthy and thriving ecosystem for her old bush vines. All work is carried out manually, with some biodynamic preparations utilized. 
In the winery, Laura’s winemaking is decidedly low tech and non-interventionist. She ferments with native yeasts and works with little sulfur. The wine is moved by gravity whenever possible, and the wines are not fined or filtered. Laura and Daterra’s over-arching philosophy: “We seek for the future through agriculture, which means years of work in the vineyard…our grapes give good information, and let us know where the wine wants to go."