MANIFESTO
A declaration of love
We love the land in which we were born,
which provides for our family,
has left us the treasure
of the varietal grapes unique to this extreme land,
and has taught us the mystery
of the cycles of life.
We love the Galicia that looks
which each morning to the sky and listens
to the secrets the wind whispers in its ear.
The land which smells of rainfall and wet earth,
generous and thankful, but challenging.
We love the craft passed on to us
by our elders from generation
to generation, which drives us to persevere
in an understanding of wine which
had been abandoned.
from each drop of their sweat and from each of their efforts.
We learn a lesson
Wisdom is not merchandise
which can be bought and sold.
Wisdom is the layers of knowledge
which are deposited in the land and fertilise it
It is the teachings that each year
are condensed into a small
number of bottles.
Each one of them unique,
different from all the others
extraordinary.
We love yesteryear because
we look to thefuture,
the place where dreams
becomememory.
We were called daring by those who now
follow in our footsteps.
We love what we are.
We love what we do.
We do what we love.
ORIGIN
Land that marks
the character
When you are born in a land, you inherit the legacy of its history, its legends and its traditions, the memory of your elders. It isn’t just the wind, rain and soil that shape geography; it’s also a character, an idiosyncrasy, a way of approaching life and meeting its challenges. The map doesn’t
just define a physical space – it also marks a spiritual universe: the Galician soul.
Galicia is an Atlantic land which worships and yearns for the sun, but knows how to turn its tribulations into a treasure. Its inhabitants are brave, audacious and adventurous. Galicia is a challenging land of determined people. They are reserved and genuine. They speak little, but when they do it is with sense and truth. Galicia is the land
that marks the Atlantic character of the Valdesil winery.
Galicia is also the home of roots that are forward-looking, and of visionaries capable of dreaming that a grape like the Valdeorras Godello could conquer the heart of the 21st century.
Valdesil was the result of the union of two families deeply rooted in the winemaking tradition of Valdeorras in 1885: the Prada and Gayoso families. These beginnings would mark the history of a winery that has always refused to give up its family character and its attachment to the land, both of which are the hallmark of the company.
Harvest by harvest, year by year, the Prada-Gayoso family has maintained this traditional and perfectionist spirit right through to its fourth generation. We harvest by hand, as has always been done. And we take care of our land, the greatest of our treasures.
At Valdesil we make wines from indigenous varieties grown in pezas. Different grape varieties are grown in each of these small plots of land, as we seek the perfect symbiosis between the vines and the geological qualities of the soil in which they have taken root. This results in limited productions of the highest quality and an authenticity which sets us apart from the rest.
MEMORY
We are the legacy
we inherit
RESPECT
Giving back to the land
what it gives you
When you’re devoted to the land, your life depends on it and you owe it your livelihood, you take on an unspoken duty to protect and conserve it.
At Valdesil we honour the land in which we were born – and which we love – because we feel the responsibility of knowing that we are the custodians of a treasure given to us by nature. And our way of showing our thanks is to work it respectfully, observing its natural cycles and following
the teachings of biodynamic agriculture.
We were pioneers in adopting a conservation philosophy which guarantees the survival of ecosystems and is crucial to the production of wines of the utmost quality. We also normalised the concept of “Cru”: working each plot individually and placing an emphasis on the special energy that each piece of land is capable of giving the wine.
This understanding that the soil, the plants and the animals that coexist in an ecosystem form a whole which seeks balance and benefits from their interaction with each other, is what determines our holistic approach to viticulture and has allowed our wines to be considered among the best in the world.
We are dreamers, stubborn, crazy.
We never give up. Difficulties don’t overwhelm us – quite the opposite.
Four generations ago, two families of winemakers had a common dream, joined forces and created the Valdesil winery in an area of Galicia full of lost villages and abandoned vineyards. When everyone else left, we stayed. We were wedded to an ecological treasure and a history that we could not give up. Swimming against the tide, rebellious and non-conformist, come hell or high water, going against common sense, we were up against everything and everyone.
And we stayed on as the last guardians of an extreme form of viticulture, farming on steep slopes and lands that demand resistance from the vines and tough sacrifices from those who work them.
This has forged our resilient nature. To resist is to overcome. We are not afraid of challenges. We don’t take the easy route, because the extraordinary is never born of the ordinary. Today, Valdesil is the leading exponent of this approach to viticulture and to life itself. It is an ambassador of the hard, remote, unknown but wonderful Galicia.
ROMANTICISM
Come hell
or high water
VIEWPOINT
Always a step
ahead
The drive to go further can always be found in the origins of any success story. Venturing into unexplored territory, not accepting that “things can’t be changed”, imagining a better reality – these are the attitudes that lie behind all forms of progress.
The winery founded by our ancestors in 1885 holds the honour of having introduced the first Godello grape vine in Valdeorras and creating the first single-varietal crop in the region. That’s called being pioneers.
The Prada Gayoso family was also responsible for the first winery in the region to create its own brand – Valdesil – abandoning the custom of bulk sales and venturing into the outside world to export its produce. That’s called being forerunners.
We were the first to apply a production philosophy based on working each plot individually, emphasising the special energy that each piece of land can give the wine. That’s called creativity.
It’s not something you can plan. There’s no roadmap that leads to excellence – there’s instinct and there’s memory. There are hands that work and wisdom which is passed from generation to generation. Excellence is knowledge and it is passion.
It is also perseverance. Doing things right takes time and means learning from the teachings that the land and the climate give to those who pay attention. Doing things
right is taking care of every last detail in the cycle of the vine, the cycle of life. From the vine to the bottle.
Some call it perfectionism. We simply call it doing things right. You don’t get to become a valued and exclusive brand unless you do things extremely well. And that’s how our wines have been able to achieve legendary status, as they arouse sensations that transcend our understanding.
EXCELLENCE