The winery
The landscape can also be drunk.
When, back in 1999, Jaime Comenge started working on his desire to make wine, his ideas were clear: the vineyard is the fundamental pillar of the character and personality of a wine and it therefore needs to be considered in each stage of the winemaking process. With this idea in mind, Bodegas Comenge has created its own winemaking philosophy based on innovation and research to express the true charm of our vineyard in the purest and most genuine way possible.
Everything starts in the vineyard
The important element is production.
Our vines are certified as grown using 100% organic methods. This has a direct effect on the flavour of the grapes and our wines. Production levels are small: we maintain the plant cover, turning the vineyard into a natural garden, into a diverse ecosystem that adds balance to the vine and is good for our health.
The wines are born in the vineyard. Our oenologist’s work is important, but the most important thing is not to hide the terroir, expressed in each vintage in an elegant and balanced way.
Harvest
Hands that pick the grapes with loving care
The grapes are picked by hand as the initial selection process and the first step to guaranteeing the quality of the wine. They are collected and transported in small 16-kg boxes and the racemes are kept intact.
The fact that the vineyards are near the winery means we can transport the harvest quickly and avoid long exposures to sunlight and the consequent loss of quality.
Receiving the grape
The grapes are picked by hand: first the racemes and then the individual grapes to ensure that only perfectly healthy and ripe grapes enter the tank. Once again, it is the loving hands of our workers that handle the grapes carefully without haste.
This meticulous selection process is fundamental at Bodegas Comenge. The elegant, enjoyable flavour of our wines in the mouth depends to a large extent on this laborious selection process.
Fermentation
Our local yeast: a substantial part of our character
The grapes of each vineyard are used to make separate wines to maintain their personality.
The fermentation of the musts is one of the processes that differentiate the personality of our wines because we use our own, exclusive yeasts isolated and selected at our vineyard. This is fundamental to creating the genuine mark of our different terroirs.
The oak barrel
Our Ribera del Duero wines are left to evolve always in oak barrels. In the barrel, the wine’s structure smooths out, the colour comes alive and brightens up and the bouquet becomes more varied, rich and complex.
Our research in recent years has led us to use a new method for the sur-lie ageing of our wine, improving their development and stability in the barrel and enhancing the personality of each of our vineyards.
Ageing in the bottle
In the same way that ageing in oak barrels is important for Ribera del Duero wine, so is the ageing in the bottle.
This is when the bouquet of the wine develops; the aromas of the variety and the fermentation process are reduced and blend into the wine with the typical aromas of the oak barrels. Over time, the structure changes slowly, making the wine more pleasant and velvety in the mouth.