Behind the vine

Clara Verheij - Bodegas Bentomiz - Axarquía, Sayalonga, Malaga

When do you think you fell in love with wine, enough to make a career of it?

We moved to this area of Spain in 1995, without knowing it’s rich wine history. We found an abandoned plot of land and my partner André built our house and we started our businesses. He wanted to build Villas and I started a language school, but the fact that we were surrounded by vineyards inspired us. In the Netherlands we were already very much into wine. Not the making (there is not a lot made there, they mainly import wines from all over the world), so it was only the 'drinking part' of the wine that we had practised a lot. So we knew what we liked and what we liked less.

When we realised it was a winemaking area, we were thrilled about this aspect. We renovated the old vineyard that we had, and later an old vineyard next to it. We started learning form the local grape growers, about growing grapes and making wines, and bit by bit our 'vino del terreno', or local table wine, became better. For 6 or 7 years we made this local, romantic product, but bit by bit I got to understand how important the grapes are, and we thought we could do more to do justice to the quality we were getting. We knew something better could be done with more control mechanisms, better barrels, better measurements, etc. That's when I started writing everything down and my hobby became my profession.

What story does your wine tell?

I make wines to my liking. Of course, we have a business to maintain, but our wines are never a commercial story. I always look for fruitiness and lightness in the bottle. My purpose is to make fresh and elegant wines and bring about the variety and the terroir. I’m not so much interested in how much oak I got, or the degree of alcohol and our process sometimes breaks with the Malaga traditions. The unique style of my wines lies in a combination of factors:

Terroir: We use old vines of indigenous grapes: 80-100 years bush vines, of the white Moscatel de Alejandría and the local indigenous red variety ‘Romé’. We don’t irrigate and we’re about 500-850 metres high, which guarantees fresh temperatures. The salty breezes that rest on the slate soils give the wines a very mineral characteristic.

Human factor: Maintenance and harvest is all hand work; we can not use any machinery. The vineyards are very steep and terraced. We don’t use herbicides or insecticides, so all weeding and hoeing is done manually. The grapes are very carefully picked and selected - I am extremely careful in giving the entire process from the picking of the grapes to the bottling the required daily attention. I work as hygienically as possible and watch the musts with utmost care. I use French oak barrels, but moderately; only when I think it adds interesting aspects or will help the wine develop. Not all wines get ageing on barrel. Several wines (white and rosé) get 8-9 months of ageing on the lees, which I think is a very useful and interesting natural process.

My three ‘dessert’ wines are all unfortified. When I have a mature grape, I apply the typically Málaga method of asoleo which is a traditional way of concentrating sugar in the grapes. You leave the grapes on ‘sun beds’ for 5 or 6 days so that they lose water and concentrate the sugar and acidity. Then, during the winemaking process, instead of adding alcohol to stop the fermentation, at approximately 13% alcohol, I use a cooling system to bring temperature back to 3 or 4 degrees under 0ºCelsius. Again I am trying to achieve freshness, and not too much alcohol. The wines have only their natural sugar and alcohol.

What misconceptions about wine do you think people should forget?

A misconception I come across very often here in Spain, but also in other countries and markets, is that white wines and rosé wines should be drunk immediately, as soon as possible after the harvest. It is something that distributors apparently come across a lot among their clients, restaurants. What a pity! I always regret to have to go over to a new vintage when the other is finished, because I get so used to the lovely development of a wine on the bottle. My whites and rosé develop wonderful on the bottle and get more interesting with ageing. I hope some day many wine lovers will appreciate this fact.

What great things about wine do you think people should remember?

The human factor: that wine is made by people. People that care about their vineyards, their grapes and their mosts. That these people only get ONE change per year to get the best out of a harvest.

Also the way that wine brings people together, at wine fairs, wine tastings, private dinners, celebrations. There is so must to enjoy in wine, together!

What is a piece of advice you would give to a woman interested in breaking into the wine world?

I would advise that you get to know the whole process: the vineyard (hoeing, pruning, the whole maintenance, the harvest), the production area in harvesting time, the machinery, the winemaker's work, the filtering, the bottling, the promotion and the sales. You do not need to be an expert in every field. But you must understand the different aspects.

If you wish to start a winery, bring a big bag of money, endless energy and a lot of time. Then, it may become the most enjoyable work you can imagine.

Where can women find your wine?

Our wines are sold in about 10 European countries. In the U.K, you can buy our wines at The Sourcing Table. They are also served in the Season & Taste restaurants in Bristol

The best place to try our wines is at our estate, which you can visit.