The Ribera del Duero has a continental climate, with average rainfall of only 450mm per year. It has an average temperature of 11.5°C, but has considerable seasonal temperature contrasts.

The region is part of the great northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, where the soils are made up of sediments from the tertiary period: sandy clays and limes alternate with layers of limestone and marl.

Our estate "Finca Asperilla" is in the Peñafiel district at some 850m above sea level. It is made up of 18 hectares of Tinta Fina and 2 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The vineyard was planted in 1994 on a range of soils, predominantly limestone and gravels. The vines are trained on a cordon trellising system. The high plant density of 3800 vines per hectare (2.2m between rows and 1.2m between vines) naturally regulates the vigour of the vines by creating competition for scarce nutrients. The vineyard is planted from East to West.

One of the distinguishing factors of the vineyard is the clone used, specifically selected by the University of David in California. It produces low yields (4000kg per hectare), small grapes and earlier than usual ripening, that give high concentrations of phenolic compounds making for concentrated, deeply coloured wines . The rootstocks used are 110-R, 41-B and 3309-C depending on the characteristics of the soils.

The leaf canopy is managed with green pruning and leaf removal to improve grape quality, increase the effectiveness of sanitary treatments (thus enabling us to reduce the overall number of treatments).

We use very little fertiliser - always of organic origin with mineral complements.

Sanitary treatments are kept to a minimum and only products that respect the environment are used: We only use natural products like sulphur, copper hydroxide and Bacillus Thuringiensis to control illnesses and plagues.