TresPiedras · Fuentecén
About us
Old vines that have withstood the passage of time in Fuentecén, in the heart of Ribera del Duero. Each vine holds the memory of the generations who tended it and is part of a unique heritage that, once lost, never returns. We recover them so they can keep telling their story in every bottle.
This is the story of a project designed with my heart for those looking for authentic, elegant, small-production wines.
Centuries of wine in Ribera del Duero
Ribera del Duero has been a wine-growing land for centuries, as its countless archaeological remains show, among them the mosaic of the god Bacchus at the Roman villa of Santa Cruz, in Baños de Valdearados. Between the 5th and 15th centuries it was a battlefield between Christians and Muslims along the Duero line, and that crossroads of cultures left castles such as Peñaranda's and traces of the importance of wine on both sides. In the 12th century Cistercian monks came from France and settled in Santa María de Valbuena and other monasteries, bringing knowledge and wine culture with them.
In 1909 phylloxera came up the Duero from Portugal and destroyed 99% of the region's vineyards. They were rebuilt quickly, even though it spelled economic disaster, and by the 1950s the underground cellars were full: each family kept its year's wine in its own cellar, or in a shared one without mixing the wines, in 3,500-litre vats. Wine was food for the long hours in the cereal fields. In 1983, 83% of Ribera's vineyards were in Burgos, and Fuentecén was one of the municipalities with the most vines; the biggest winery in the region was in the village.
Then came the decline. In the 1960s cooperative wineries put an end to most artisanal winemaking, and people began leaving for Madrid, Barcelona or Bilbao: Fuentecén has gone from 1,300 inhabitants in 1960 to 83, with an average age of 72. In the early 1990s depopulation, the lack of decently paid labour, the sugar-beet boom and the low yields of old vines led to many vineyards being abandoned, and between 1997 and 2004 land consolidation wiped out almost all the old vineyard that remained.
The singularity of the plots and the landscape was lost, along with the clones and native varieties and growing techniques perfected over hundreds of years. New vineyards were planted with clones bred for maximum yield rather than quality: the very opposite of what we believe in.
How we work
Recovering old vineyards
Our goals from the start: recover historic vineyards and rebuild others respecting their original form; practise sustainable, organic viticulture to achieve the highest quality; and create local jobs and rebuild the intangible heritage, to bring back the splendour of our villages.
Life in the soil
Today diversity and life have taken over the soil again. We do not use any systemic products, and we protect biodiversity to keep the environment balanced and sustainable. We only use organic fertilisers, mostly sheep manure, which also helps sustain the local economy.
All by hand
All vine care and harvesting is done by hand, to achieve the highest quality and protect both the plants and the people.
Heritage and technology
We protect the traditional architecture to remember where we come from, and we restore the tools once used to carry the grapes out of the vineyards. At the same time, technology and analytics are a pillar of the project: we measure the vineyards in real time with connected sensors.
Why TresPiedras
The name comes from Fuentecén's old cereal mill, where all the grain from the Riaza valley was brought to be ground into flour. It once belonged to El Empecinado, a Spanish hero of the war against the French.
This is only the beginning of what we intend to be one of the most unique and outstanding projects in the wine world. A part of the cultivated history of Ribera del Duero is safe, and we can all enjoy the result.
See the wines