Vineyard in Villafranca del Bierzo, León.
They say of El Bierzo that it is the fifth Galician province and, if I were not from Leon and it hurt my soul to separate from this immense region that is the pantry of León, I would understand that others wanted to keep it. And not only because of its geographical proximity –it is very close to Lugo and Orense–, nor because of its cultural proximity –shares with Galicia much of its idiosyncrasy, traditions and customs–, but because it treasures in its more than three thousand square kilometers of surface an enviable natural and historical heritage, unique products of the land and a hospitable, generous and commercial lifestyle... although, to be honest, I have to confess that El Vierzo was already an independent province 200 years ago, when its name was written with a 'V' and it governed itself, an identity recognition that has regained strength today.
eye! That El Bierzo was also integrated into the Astur people, hence in the Bercian dialect (and subdialects and slang) we find many words shared with the Asturian-Leonese. It is as if in a syntactic shaker they had put many morphological ingredients of Castilian, Bable, Asturian and Galician, in addition to the foreign words arrived on the Camino de Santigo, and they would have beaten it for centuries to create a rich formula of communication collected in a proverbial way by the poet Antonio Fernández y Morales in Poetic essays in berciano dialect (1861):
- Oh Sil! Snake d' scales d' gold
- que 'n óutro Edem,
- where for Evas there is a treasure
- d' beautiful pearls, c' a chorus breeze
- sound they fear
Las Médulas, a natural monument in the province of León.
THE HOLE
'Hoya y Montaña', that's how easy I am going to summarize the Bercian relief so as not to confuse the reader with complicated administrative subdivisions. Or, what is the same, Bierzo Bajo, the central and flattest area of the Bercian tectonic basin, that of the great valleys; and Bierzo Alto, the mountainous one, whose capital is Bembibre and extends to the west of the Sil river until it reaches Los Ancares.
In the Bierzo Bajo is where it is the capital of El Bierzo, Ponferrada, a city with a historic pedestrian center full of emblazoned houses and framed between the Sil and Boeza rivers that refuses to lose its power (for a reason it has a Templar castle that began to be built in the 11th century); also the most important Villafranca del Bierzo, declared a Historic-Artistic Site in 1965 and in whose Romanesque church of Santiago Jubilee Graces can be won in the event that a pilgrim cannot continue to the Cathedral of Santiago due to accident or illness.
Ponferrada, capital of El Bierzo.
Another monument in the area, in this case natural and 2,000 years old, are Las Médulas, the largest open-pit gold mine in the entire Roman Empire. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, they have several routes for all levels and two viewpoints, Las Perdices and Orellán, from which you can see the sun hide between the impressive red sandstone pinnacles.
It's not all clay-colored in this great engineering feat of the past, as brooms, holm oaks, thyme, lavender and chestnut trees color the mountainous profile green; Lake Sumido is blue, sometimes carpeted with water lilies, and Lake Carucedo, used by Gil and Carrasco to set his homonymous novel.
Also of interest in the Hoya Berciana are the towns of Cacabelos, Camponaraya, Molinaseca and Peñalba de Santiago, the latter one of the Most Beautiful Towns in Spain and a Site of Cultural Interest for its unique Bercian rural architecture nestled in the Montes Aquilanos.
It should be remembered that the southeastern El Bierzo is the main access gate of the Camino de Santiago in the region, which is crossed by four of its variants: French Way, Forgotten Way, Manzanal Way and Winter Way.
Peñalba de Santiago, one of the Most Beautiful Towns in Spain
THE MOUNTAIN
Es Bembibre, with its Ecce Hommo Sanctuary, the capital of the Bierzo Alto, a territory of continuous slopes covered with thick oak forests and chestnut groves which covers the northwest of the province of León and encompasses more secluded towns, such as Folgoso de la Ribera, Igüeña, Fabero, Toreno, Matarrosa, Páramo and Palacios del Sil and Colinas del Campo de Martín Moro Toledano (Artistic Historical Complex that boasts of having the longest name of the entire province).
Los Ancares, Biosphere Reserve, is a rare bird of deep valleys converted into “natural entrance and exit doors to Galicia or Asturias”, as the El Bierzo Tourist Board describes this natural space. Here the farmlands are greedy; the climate, rough and the constructions, traditional. It is a remote and isolated world (both geographically and culturally) where the bear, the capercaillie, the mountain goat, the roe deer and the wolf roam freely.
Humans, on the other hand, in the Sierra de los Ancares took shelter with their domestic animals in the oval pallozas roofed with teito (rye straw) castros such as Chano, inhabited by Asturians between the 1st century B.C. and the first half of the 1st century AD.
Castro del Chano, pre-Roman settlement in the Leonese Ancares.
THE BERCIANA PANTRY
Plinio described the territories of the great Sil valley as a fertile orchard, and little has changed in El Bierzo since then. Its industrial past (based on coal mining and thermal power plants) is already history and, once again, La Hoya Berciana is emerging as a fruit and vegetable and wine paradise. Now the most thriving sector, along with tourism, is the agri-food sector.
“The Province of León has the largest number of agri-food quality labels and marks in the entire country”, comments José Cañedo, general secretary of the Leonese Academy of Gastronomy.
And El Bierzo has a lot to do with this, since The region has seven seals of quality (and prestige!): Designation of Origin Bierzo (wine), Designation of Origin for the Reineta Apple, Guarantee Mark for the Conference Pear, Guarantee Mark for the Chestnut, Guarantee Mark for the Cherry, Protected Geographical Indication of the Botillo and Protected Geographical Indication of the Roasted Pepper of Bierzo.
Fruit (apple, pear, cherry and chestnut...) and vegetables (pepper, onion, tomato...) accompany the vines in some crop fields watered by a Sil loaded with tributaries and rocked by a climate as peculiar as it is mild because the hole is a geographic depression with Atlantic influence.
In another pot is where it is cooked its famous botillo from Bierzo, unique in Spain: "Fundamentally it is made up of the backbone and the tail of the pig. It was a food that was used, of what was left over from the animal, but lately the stuff with which the pig's cecum is stuffed is being improved, today other higher quality products are added , like lacón", explains José Cañedo.
Where to enjoy a good botillada? Obviously, at La Casa del Botillo. And to go to the shot made and stock up on all those products that we have talked about, put the GPS until you reach the Palacio de Canedo, a monument listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest by the Junta de Castilla y León which is the Prada a Tope store, winery, restaurant and hotel.
Terrace in the Palace of Canedo, in El Bierzo.
IT IS ALSO A WINE, AND WHAT A WINE!
There is no need to list the benefits of D.O. bierzo, of the recognition all the obtained prizes are already in charge to date by some of its 78 wineries, several of which have already embarked on wine tourism projects.
"These are very high rated wines, very well cataloged by professionals", reminds us Misericordia Bello, president since 2014 of the Regulatory Council of the Bierzo Denomination of Origin, while she explains to us that the vineyards of Godello and Mencía grapes from Hoya Berciana look at the four cardinal points, which – together with its climate more Atlantic than Mediterranean, more rainy – makes each wine particular and exclusive.
What does require our attention is its particular and newly released classification of vineyards by smaller geographical units. So that we understand each other, know the specific place where the wine comes from. To be a town wine, first the traceability that comes from that town will be required, then there will be another step further: within the town, the wine will be linked to a place.
"The consumer will know every step we are taking until we reach the smallest geographical unit, which, in turn, will guarantee the highest quality parameters as there are greater restrictions (type of pruning, load of grapes on the vine, etc. ) and less harvest", Misericordia Bello continues. **And the big final step? It will be a Great Wine from a Classified Vineyard. **
Is it or is not all this to want to stay with this Leonese region? Well, I'm sorry, because even though they are yours, for now, they are ours.
In El Bierzo the vineyards look at the four cardinal points.