Pablo Soldavini

Amandi on the left, Ribeiras do Sil on the right
Sainas

Photography and writing by Ted Vance.

The Argentine transplant living in Ribeira Sacra’s most deeply secluded parts, Pablo Soldavini seems to have been born to make wine. Pablo’s grandfather, Antonio Amaro, was sent from the small Ribeira Sacra town, Castro Caldelas, to Argentina in the 1930s at the age of ten to live with his uncles after his mother died during childbirth followed by years of struggle with his father and the new wife. A second generation Argentinian, Pablo grew up in the small town Punta Alta, just outside of Bahía Blanca, a medium-sized port city to the south of Buenos Aires. After primary school, he went on to study and eventually work in graphic design with some carpentry jobs on the side. The idea of returning to his grandfather’s Galician roots began to take hold, and he was simply too full of energy for the years of sitting in one place as a graphic designer.

With a magnetic draw toward his family’s ancestral stomping grounds along with an interest in the romantic side of wine, Pablo arrived to Spain in 2000 after a year meandering through Mexico (where his son and his son’s mother lived), followed by Paris, and the British city, Lancaster. He eventually settled in his grandfather’s beautiful medieval Galician hometown, atop a hill in the Ribeira Sacra with a well-preserved castle called Castillo de Castro Caldelas.

Pablo’s idea of the “romantic wine life” began to slowly deteriorate with so many industrially-processed grapes one wouldn’t even want to eat, and chemically farmed and over-cropped vineyards void of nearly all life beyond the vines. None of this end of the wine trade made sense to him, especially that just to make a few extra bucks, many small grape growers would spray herbicide and pesticide to increase their yields, even for products intended for their own table. Disillusioned, he began to work with his cousins who made vineyard work for growers in the area and worked in a more natural way. There he learned better ways to farm, and began taking courses on pruning and grape growing, and the romance was rekindled.

Pablo Soldavini

Pablo’s viticultural ideas are centered on respect for nature, and his mind is open to the world of possibilities in this regard. While he’s quirky and fun, and even a little antsy (well, maybe more than a little…), he’s also mentally calm and extremely thoughtful about the choices he and others make. When he’s learned something, he’s not pushy, but rather humble and is able to deliver the message to his fellow Gallegan winegrowers in a realistic and pragmatic fashion. The best thing about Pablo, aside from his natural generosity and effusiveness, is that his ambition is focused on learning things and experiencing life without a preoccupation with money. In our many conversations about wine and life, he has reiterated his disinterest in being wealthy, how he only wants to work in a way that supplies him with enough to live, while giving him a sense of meaning.

At The Source, we are infatuated with terroir but we’re even more infatuated by the people; it’s the influence of those who work the terroirs that has a greater voice than any other element of a wine. Every grape Pablo Soldavini comes in contact with seems to benefit from his touch—somehow this Galician outsider has that special instinct, and his ability to quickly understand the nature of a terroir and to coax it into breakout performance is a rare thing indeed.

Pablo attributes much of his early knowledge to his time working with his cousins in the early 2010s, followed by his time as a former partner at the Ribeira Sacra winery, Fedellos do Couto, and others he admires for their work in the Ribeira Sacra, like Pedro Rodríguez of Guímaro, and even more so, his close relationship to Alfonso Torrento, from Envínate. The mutual respect for Pablo and his Galician compatriots is clear; even wine writers, like one of Spain’s most passionate, Luis Gutiérrez, understand how Pablo can swing the fortunes of those he works with dramatically.

Vineyard Philosophy and Practice

Once Pablo finds new vineyards they are immediately converted to organic farming, and life in this extremely wet area comes back with a vengeance—much faster than other regions. However, Pablo believes that too much of an abrupt change from conventional farming to organic can be a costly mistake, which is a shared belief with many winegrowers who have converted. The break from the vine’s dependence on treatments utillized since they were planted can shock the plant and possibly stunt the growth and production.

Pablo prefers to work with all varieties but Mencía, given the grape is not a native to Ribeira Sacra. In his vineyards, there is a good proportion of Garnacha Tintorera, Alicante Bouschet, Mouratón, Merenzao (Trousseau, in French), Godello, Palomino, Caíño Bravo, and probably some others as well, and most of the vines are middle-aged to very old.

The Cellar

Pablo employs a combination of gentle winemaking and a move away from single-variety dominated blends. The timing of the first sulfite additions depends on the fruit, with most of them added only prior to bottling. Most of the fermentations are made in open-top 1000-liter fermenters and there are no added yeast cultures, only natural fermentations. The stems are used for reds almost in entirety with an average of about 90%, and the extractions are extremely gentle and could be considered a quasi-infusion style with the grape cap only wetted a couple of times per day. Fermentations on skins last around a month before pressing and the juice spends a night in tank before transfer to either steel or barrel where they spend between six months to a year before bottling.

Pablo Soldavini - 2020 Ribeira Sacra, Saíñas o Bolino, Tinto

Price: $34.00
Size: 750ml
Availability: 

1 in stock

Type of Wine: Red
Grape(s): 70% Mencía, 10% Garnacha Tintorera, 5% Mouratón, 5% Merenzao, 5% Godello, and 5% Palomino.
Style: Mineral, Rustic, Medium Body, Elegant and Aromatic

The Wine

O Boliño, the nickname of its former owner, is also close to the river but a little further away toward the east, just out of sight of Castro das Saíñas. The vines here have an average age of around eighty years and are Mencía (70%), Garnacha Tintorera (10%), and the remaining vines more or less equally planted between Mouratón, Merenzao, and the white grapes, Godello and Palomino. The average age of vines is more than eighty years. The terraces are not extreme like those on Castro das Saiñas, but rather on a softer slope with many more vine rows on each terrace. The parcel is on the eastern side of a south-facing amphitheater composed of heavily decomposed granite bedrock and a medium-grain, sandy topsoil composed entirely of granite derived from the bedrock—think a mini version of Cornas, but less steep. The parcel is also set next to a grove of indigenous trees on its eastern flank. (Galicia is a land invaded by eucalyptus trees which can mark wines grown in close proximity to them, and I think it’s interesting to note the composition of surrounding forests and whether they include this invasive Australian tree, or not.) The close proximity to the forest improves the freshness of its temperature during scorching hot days. It also improves the overall biodiversity inside the vineyard, and delays the sun’s influence until later in the morning—and these elements are felt in this fresh tasting wine.

INFORMATION DISCLAIMER

Terroir: A soft sloping amphitheater facing south and protected from winds by the neighboring forest. It is located next to the Cabe River, a tributary of the Sil River.

Vinification: 100% destemmed Mencía fermented in open 1000-liter vats without the addition of yeasts. Gentle extraction (almost infusion) with a wetting of the cap twice each day. Fermentation and maceration lasts for around 30 days. After pressing and after 24 hours of decantation, it is transferred to the barrels where it makes the malolactic in a natural way.

Aging: 11 months in 400-liter used French oak barrels

(Subjective and based on young wines)

Technical Precision:

NatureModerateNurture

The Vineyard

Soil:

Granite bedrock with sandy and gravelly granite topsoil derived from the bedrock.

Farming:

SustainableOrganic CertifiedBiodynamic CertifiedUncertified Naturalist

Converting to organic starting in 2018 and expected to complete around 2024, or so.

Irrigation:

ForbiddenNeverSometimes

Vine Age:

Planted around 80 years ago (2020)

Altitude (meters):

310-330

Aspect:

South/Southwest

Slope:

Medium slope with large terraces
(typical numbers; not vintage specific)

Enological Additions:

Sulfites

Total SO2:

None AddedVery LowLowMediumHigh

About The Wine

O Boliño, the nickname of its former owner, is also close to the river but a little further away toward the east, just out of sight of Castro das Saíñas. The vines here have an average age of around eighty years and are Mencía (70%), Garnacha Tintorera (10%), and the remaining vines more or less equally planted between Mouratón, Merenzao, and the white grapes, Godello and Palomino. The average age of vines is more than eighty years. The terraces are not extreme like those on Castro das Saiñas, but rather on a softer slope with many more vine rows on each terrace. The parcel is on the eastern side of a south-facing amphitheater composed of heavily decomposed granite bedrock and a medium-grain, sandy topsoil composed entirely of granite derived from the bedrock—think a mini version of Cornas, but less steep. The parcel is also set next to a grove of indigenous trees on its eastern flank. (Galicia is a land invaded by eucalyptus trees which can mark wines grown in close proximity to them, and I think it’s interesting to note the composition of surrounding forests and whether they include this invasive Australian tree, or not.) The close proximity to the forest improves the freshness of its temperature during scorching hot days. It also improves the overall biodiversity inside the vineyard, and delays the sun’s influence until later in the morning—and these elements are felt in this fresh tasting wine.