As I wrote last week, the first day of our road trip in Spain included a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Segovia. While we could have easily spent a full day there, we left its beautiful old walled city in mid-afternoon in order to make our scheduled visit to a winery. Our route took us through a rural landscape, dotted here and there with small villages and ancient, tiny stone churches, nearly every one boasting a large and jumbled heap of sticks — a stork’s nest — built upon the steeple or bell tower. As we drew closer to the wine region of Ribero del Duero in the Castilla y León region of northern Spain, we began to see more vineyards. Unlike most vineyards in the States, the vines here were not trellissed but instead each plant stood alone, unsupported.

We arrived at Bodegas Nabal   at four o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon, the only guests at this large, beautiful, modern facility. Our host and guide, Marta, started our tour off with a visit to the tank room,   in which the recently crushed grapes ferment in huge stainless tanks. While this family-owned winery produces 200,000 cases of wine annually, they take great care with the handling of the grapes and the entire process. The grapes are hand-picked and placed in smaller bins for gentle handling.    The facility was designed to be gravity-fed, with the grapes delivered on the loading platform — on the same level as the top of the fermentation tanks. Naturally occurring yeast only is used in the making of the Tempranillo and Rosé wines produced here.

We moved on to the vast and peaceful barrel room, lit by diffuse purple lights and stained-glass windows,   evoking a large and peaceful church.    Here the winery’s Crianza (by Spanish law, these wines must be aged at least 2 years, at least 12 months of which must be in oak barrels), Reserva (at least 3 years of aging, including at least 12 months in oak) and Valle de Nabal (aged 6 to 9 months in oak) 100 percent Tempranillos age before they are bottled and stored in the bottle room.    We strolled through one of the “caves” lined with barrels  before passing through one of the tasting rooms.   Here an enormous sculpture, created with a huge log, evoked the mechanism of a wine press    . . . a truly impressive work of art.

At the end of our tour, Marta served us a plate of cheeses and charcuterie to accompany our tasting of the 2018 Rosé (a Tempranillo, Grenache and Albillo blend, at 8.5 euro),     and the 2016 Valle de Nabal (10.5 euro).     We found them each delightful; and although we didn’t taste them, we each bought a few bottles of the Crianza and the Reserva as well as the Rosé to enjoy during the rest of our journey and transport a few bottles home. (Shipping costs were prohibitive, and the quantity we could send home was limited by state laws.) We did note that, unlike the practice of most wineries we’ve visited in the States, our tasting fee of 9 euros each was not waived, in whole or in part, with the purchase of the wine.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor