WINEMAKER: VERONICA ORTEGA - EL BIERZO, SPAIN
WINEMAKER: VERÓNICA ORTEGA
EL BIERZO, SPAIN
$225 PER PERSON
3 COURSE DINNER + 8 WINES
Veronica Ortega La LLorona 2025
Veronica Ortega Tormenta 2023
Veronica Ortega Roto 2023
Vernoica Ortega Quite 2022
Veronica Ortega Version Original 2024
Veronica Ortega Cobrana 2022
Veronica Ortega ROC 2022
Veronica Ortega Careo 2024
BIERZO’S OLD VINES, TRANSLATED THROUGH A BURGUNDIAN LENS
Verónica Ortega is one of the key modern winemakers in Bierzo, in northwestern Spain. She is originally from Cádiz in southern Spain, but after working in several major European wine regions she settled in Bierzo and built her own project around old-vine Mencía and local white varieties. Her winery is based in Carracedelo, León.
Her résumé is unusually strong: she worked with Álvaro Palacios and Daphne Glorian in Priorat, then spent time in Burgundy at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Domaine Comte Armand, along with experience in the Rhône and elsewhere. That Burgundy influence is useful for understanding her style: she treats Mencía less like a grape for big, extracted Spanish reds and more like Pinot Noir—a transparent vehicle for vineyard, soil and altitude.
She began her own project in Bierzo around 2010–2012, working particularly around Valtuille de Abajo and Cobrana. Many of her vineyards are tiny parcels of very old vines—often 70+ years old—on combinations of slate, sand and clay, with some sites reaching roughly 750 meters elevation. Farming is organic and the winemaking is deliberately low-intervention, with restrained sulfur and vessels including large wood, stainless steel and clay amphorae.
THE WINES :
ROC is probably her flagship Mencía. It comes from old vines and is a more structured, serious expression: floral, mineral, savory and elegant rather than heavy. The wine is named in tribute to her late brother Roberto.
COBRANA is especially interesting. It comes from high-elevation old vineyards around the village of Cobrana and is predominantly Mencía with small amounts of traditional white grapes planted among the reds. It tends to be very fragrant and delicate—red berries, violet, herbs, mineral character and extremely fine tannins. A Guardian tasting described the style as remarkably graceful and Atlantic in feel.
QUITE is generally the more approachable introduction to Ortega: fresh, bright Mencía emphasizing fruit, acidity and drinkability rather than extraction.
KINKI goes even further toward the light, energetic end of the spectrum—crunchy fruit, freshness and a somewhat irreverent natural-wine personality.
Her whites are also important. CAL was a remarkable single-vineyard Godello grown on one of Bierzo's very rare limestone sites and made using amphora and barrel. She ultimately had to discontinue it after the vineyard was sold, which has made older bottles particularly interesting. She also makes Godello-based wines such as La Llorona and Tormenta, depending on vintage and availability.
What makes her especially compelling is that she represents the newer intellectual direction of Spanish wine: old vineyards, indigenous varieties, restrained extraction, less obvious oak, village/site expression and wines built around freshness rather than sheer power. She is essentially taking the raw material of historic Bierzo and interpreting it through a Burgundy-informed lens.