1984
Mesón Zamora. Toro. Spain. Licensed official barkeepers.
2010
2015
2016
Official birth of Bodegas Bigardo.
“There is always a beginning. This is the story. The time is now.”
2020
Purchase of the new winery next to the Duero River. Toro.
CURRENT
We continue to grow doing what we know how to do, free wines made in Toro. Will you join us?
“Life is a dream, and dreams are dreams…” – Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
Everything has an influence: the soil, the microbiology, the climate, the variety: TINTA DE TORO… what, when and how we do the work in the field… an enormous number of factors, not always controllable, that determine the characteristics of the grape at such a critical moment as THE HARVEST. Very old vines, I would say. The youngest vineyard is 40 years old and the oldest is registered in 1920…probably earlier, none of us were there when they were planted.
We control the entire process, from the vineyard to the glass. 20 hectares of family vineyards and 10 hectares of borrowed vineyards that we take care of as our own. Located in the Vega de Toro, in Valdefinjas and Bardales.
Possibly the most particular region of the Ribera del DUERO. Province of Zamora.
The vineyard is the raison d’être of all our wines, our most valued asset after our customers.
We could be vignerons or any other fashion, the reality:
“SOLDIERS OF THE VINEYARD, THE WINE AND THE CITY OF TORO”.
Tinta de Toro (not tempranillo)
From 40 to 100+ years old
Never more than 4,500Kg.
(Source: www.dotoro.com)
The conditions of the Toro region are characterized by an extreme continental climate with Atlantic influences, of an arid nature:
Precipitation: Around 300 liters ANNUAL.
Temp. annual average: 12-13ºC (FROM -11º to 37ºC)
Effective sunshine hours: 3,000 or more
Heliothermic index: 4.23
Vine vegetative cycle: 230 days (approx.)
“My love, suddenly
your hip
is the heaped curve
of the glass,
your chest is the cluster,
the light of alcohol your hair,
grapes your nipples,
your navel pure seal
stamped on your pot belly,
and your love the waterfall
of inextinguishable wine,
the clarity that falls on my senses,
the earthly splendor of life.”
– Pablo Neruda.
The grapes are always harvested by hand. It is transported in boxes of less than 15 kgs, which is key for quality wines.
The grape cutting device is formed every year with a group of friends of the most varied. An essential link in this process.
All our wines are made by selecting in the field and from the budding of the vineyard the grapes that provide the characteristics we are looking for: freshness, not overripe fruit, good acidity and a tannin let’s say civilized (TORO RULES!)… and balance, always balance.
We are a very JASP (YOUNG ALTHOUGH SOVEREIGNLY PREPARED) winery. This allows us to know each plot very well and to choose the optimal harvest time. Now the refractometer is king. A short but intense experience growing up among these vines gives us the best possible information for intuition to help us make decisions in these critical moments.
Having our own vineyard allows us not to depend on the juggling of the market.
The first selection is made in the vineyard. We harvest our own grapes and make our own wine, we are crazy. If the grapes are not appetizing to eat, don’t cut them, that’s not for us.
Not surprisingly, there is a second selection before destemming to eliminate possible plant residues such as leaves or shoots.
Wine is made in the vineyard? This is very debatable, for the moment, the raw material, which is fundamental, arrives in the best conditions at the winery. We do our best to make each vintage the best in history.
Prayer is permitted.
Making wine is a matter of art. Just as the aim of art is to imitate nature… “but imitating the way nature does it”, in the winery we tirelessly seek to imitate and transmit everything that the vineyard offers us.
All very creative indeed.
Oenology, the science of small details, is determined by many factors that influence the quality and perception of a wine in the glass. Ultimately, the only reward is customer satisfaction.
Natural wine. Artisan.
Minimal interventionism.
Breeding in different
oak barrels.
Elaboration
and manual labeling.
I consider myself privileged to be able to work in total freedom, without ties, with truth.
A personal interpretation of natural and artisanal wine without certifications or limitations.
Supported by science and modern technologies as important processing tools.
Free wines that express all that the vineyard gives us, without artifice.
Is the wine made in the vineyard?
I invite you to come to the winery to discover it.
All these good words are not free marketing. Here, we select, lot and work the grapes in small tanks of 1,000 kilos.
Knowing the different characteristics of the vineyard or area of the plot where they come from. During the process we do not use large and terrifying machines that mistreat the grapes.
Always treating the raw material with care during all phases. Manual punching down during maceration, extraction and fermentation… at a very controlled temperature thanks to the good thermal inertia of the small tanks.
Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are carried out with indigenous microorganisms that come from the vineyard, which provide a lot of Terroir character and are undoubtedly a good part of the differentiation between some wines and others.
Use of inert gases for the transfers.
Decantation and natural stabilization.
Gravity belongs to our team.
We achieve the desired acidity with the blend of wines, never with external additions….We only add a very moderate amount of sulfur to sleep peacefully.
After fermentation: maceration for 10 to 20 days, depending on the type of grape and the type of wine desired.
The wine is pressed very lightly. With very low yields that allow all the resulting wine to be of first quality, flower wine, with the only and not little differentiation of the vineyard where they come from.
All this effort to have different wines, different colors that will paint the picture of the final blend.
A handmade wine, very much so.
So it is a natural wine? Natural as ourselves. Being natural, like being handsome, is not for showing off.
Barrels of different sizes, capacities, cooperages, toasts… The experimental character allows a lot of leeway in the use of different woods, always oak to date. We have more than 300 barrels. We do not use alternatives for aging, these are wines for Pinocchio.
The small production facilitates the individual control of each barrel, establishing styles from the very beginning that will make up the final blend. With a traceability system that allows us to know from which plot it comes from and under what conditions it has been vinified. The aim is to achieve roundness in the wine, that it is at its optimum point and not too far in time. The barrel is not a wig to cover alopecia, it is a fine styling professional who will best position what we already have.
Barrel by barrel
Oak to date
Sizes, roasts...
We are here, in Toro (Zamora).
The new winery is located at km 3.3 of the road that connects Toro with Alaejos and also communicates with Villafranca de Duero and Castronuño on its way. We are fortunate to hear Father Douro river every day in our winery. It is a privilege to be inspired by the sound of the river to try to make the second best wine in the world, here in Toro.
“Douro River, Douro River, nobody to accompany you down; nobody stops to listen your eternal stanza of water.” – Gerardo Diego. 1922.
