Pablo Valle and the wines of Bodegas Valle Blanco

Adrian McManus interviews winemaker Pablo Valle in El Bierzo.

On our last visit to El Bierzo, at the beginning of October last year, the Spanish Wine Collective called in on Bodegas Valle Blanco in the hill-top hamlet of Otero de Villadecanes to have a chat with the new man at the helm, Pablo Valle.

Pablo, aged just 26, took over from his father, renowned Bierzo viticultor Modesto 'Pipo’ Valle, in the wake of the pandemic, a time of upheaval in this most singular of Spanish wine regions. The tip-off about Valle Blanco came from Nacho León of Demencia fame, previously featured at the Spanish Wine Collective. He had described Pipo to me as the winegrower’s winegrower (el viticultor de los viticultores, ie someone that inspires admiration within that group). That’s some compliment.

So what are we talking about in vineyard terms, Pablo?

We’re talking about a total of five hectares of old Mencía vines planted between 1890 and 1945.

Otero means ‘hill’, so we have five plots with different orientations and with elevations ranging from 400m to 700m. Our soils are mainly schist but also some gravelly stuff.

Up to 2011 we just supplied Mencía to wineries in the area. Our first vintage was 2011 after the family took the decision to convert an old family property in the village into a proper winemaking facility complete with an underground cellar for our barriques.

How do you focus your work both in the vineyard and the cellar?

I’ve established three fundamental priorities: the knowledge I need to have of my vines, a scrupulously clean cellar and getting the timing right when carrying out specific tasks in both the vineyard and the cellar.

What does it take to make a wine that will eventually bear the Valle Blanco label?

For me it’s absolutely essential that the grapes express all of their sensorial qualities and arrive at the cellar completely disease-free.  

Your father Modesto, known to many as 'Pipo’ Valle in El Bierzo, might be considered a hard act to follow.  Now that he’s passed on the baton to you, does he find it difficult to not get involved?

He delegates everything to me but I have to say his knowledge is still in ‘effervescence’. He can still give a masterclass in viticulture when necessary (laughs).

What are the things that you think are special in your wines?

 Los Siete Cuartales Tinto and Rosado are twins.

They both come from the same Mencía vines and each half of the total yield goes into making each wine. They’re both complex and homogenous, both of them share those two attributes. 

I’d also say they’re complex due to the terroir and age of the vines, and homogenous, which I think is due to our approach in the cellar, ie calm and methodical. The tinto I’d describe as rustic and intense, while the rosado is fragrant and glyceric.

What kind of wine-drinker are you aiming your wines at?

We’re aiming them at whoever might appreciate them, so we don’t really have a specific type of drinker in mind. Our terroir has its own characteristics and with each vintage these idiosyncrasies are reflected in the wine in different ways. My job is to accompany the wine through each phase of the process, but for me the most important factor is that of allowing the vineyard to express itself to the maximum.

How do you distribute your wines?

Right now deliveries are an integral part of our activity without involving distributors. We allocate a specific number of bottles to professional clients, mainly restaurants, but also sell directly to the general public.  

What’s your opinion on the rise of the so-called natural wines? A colleague that works for an importer in New York has told me that many clients, when presented with pristine white wines from Spain, ask him for funkier, cideresque stuff.

“Bretty” wines to me only reveal one thing, a lackadaisical or careless attitude to hygiene in the cellar.

It pisses me off that some people consider brett to be a positive attribute. I think it upsets the balance of the wine, depriving it of personality/character and terroir. Though these yeasts are out there in the vineyard, they’ll multiply in the cellar if you’re not taking the all-important hygiene question seriously.

Brettanomyces Bruxellensis is called what it’s called for a reason, given that it was present in massive amounts in the River Zenne, Brussels, at one time one of the most polluted rivers in Europe. Some historians referred to it as the most nauseating water course in the world, no more than an open sewer at the turn of the 20th century.

So how the f*** has that become trendy in wine? It’s a disaster!  Having said that, I’m not turned off by unfiltered, unfined wines, so I’m not completely opposed to the concept of natural wines.

Do you recognise the value of quality wine tourism for reaching a wider audience?

Well it’s rather complicated. At the end of the day, much of it will come down to your resources. You have to be open to talk about your work and to get the word out. I think that explaining things well, in an accessible and amenable way, goes a long way. The rest will depend on your premises and things like space, mobility etc.

When you’re out and about on the town, what kind of wines do you like to drink?

I normally order wines made in El Bierzo, but I definitely have a predilection for the wines of Italy. New world wines I’m not that fond of, but maybe that’s because I don’t understand them.

What’s your opinion regarding the decline in wine consumption among young people?

I think that like with most things, it’s cyclical. I have noticed that more and more young people are drinking white wines of late, which is great but we also have to get them onboard with Mencía too.

How can we get hold of your wines?

You can get in touch with us directly, by phone or by email.

We ship throughout the peninsula in 24-48h.

All 📷 except Siete Cuartales © Francesc Fonseca Sánchez