Dominio de Tares

Old vineyards first

The cellar decisions begin in the parcels, where Rafael Somonte, winemaker at Dominio de Tares in San Roman De Bembibre, reads old Mencía and Godello before the fruit reaches the tanks. Since 2014, he has served as enologist and technical director here, and also as director general of Bodegas Dominio de Tares. His formation at ESADE Business & Law School sits behind the work as structure rather than display: vineyard, vine age, soil, then the bottle. The house began in 2000 as Viñedos y Bodegas Dominio de Tares S.A., a fine-wine project built in San Román de Bembibre to make the old-vine inheritance of Bierzo legible beyond the valley. Somonte’s own phrasing is plain enough to carry the method: “At Dominio de Tares we only make wines from old vineyards; that is where the name of our most emblematic wine, Cepas Viejas, comes from.” Under his technical direction, the cellar has moved toward less oak presence and a clearer expression of Mencía, without loosening the estate’s reliance on indigenous fermentations.

A range measured by vine age

Dominio de Tares works across Bierzo Alto and lower Bierzo, with estate vineyards around San Román de Bembibre and Quilós, plus fruit from almost 30 small winegrowers in Valtuille de Abajo and Villadecanes. The upper sites sit at 600 to 800 meters on slate and shale, with traces of iron, copper, and gold; the lower villages sit at 400–600 meters on clay and loam. That spread gives Somonte a disciplined set of materials rather than a single register. Baltos comes from 40-year-old vines and takes four months in barrel. Cepas Viejas, the flagship Mencía, comes from 60+ year-old vines and spends nine to 12 months in oak, with around 170,000 bottles produced per vintage. Bembibre draws from 80-plus-year-old vines on schist soils, with slopes reaching 22%. P3 narrows the idea to the San Carlos plot, where 110-year-old pre-phylloxera Mencía grows on ungrafted rootstock and the wine spends 16 months in new French oak followed by 24 months in bottle.

The cellar below Bierzo Alto

The place feels more like a working cellar than a room arranged for spectacle. Dominio de Tares stands in Bierzo Alto, surrounded by hillside vineyards and tied by fruit to Quilós, Valtuille de Abajo, and Villadecanes. The atmosphere is quiet and professional, shaped by tanks, barrels, and the steady separation of parcels rather than design gestures. Godello has its own line in the program: La Sonrisa de Tares is a 100% Godello cuvée first released in the 2015 vintage, fermented and matured with its lees for five months in stainless steel vats. Cepas Viejas Godello begins in stainless steel tanks, then moves to 500-litre French oak barrels for six months on fine lees. The room’s patience is practical. It belongs to lees, slopes, barrica, and the San Carlos plot.