Asunción Barbadillo is one of the leading voices representing the new DO Arlanza. Manager of the Monte Amán bodega, brought up in the area’s winemaking environment and closely involved in its development, today she is proud to see one of her dreams fulfilled: the region’s acknowledgement as a Designation of Origin. However, she is aware of how much remains to be done and looks forward to a future defined by the sector’s international development.

Despite her family name, Asunción Barbadillo is not related to the world-famous bodega in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz. Her contribution lies elsewhere, in the recovery of the area around Ribera del Arlanza, through her hard work at Monte Amán, a bodega located in Castrillo Solarana. In the province of Burgos and a ten-minute drive away from Lerma, the region’s winemaking tradition harks back to Roman times. It is no coincidence that the appellation is sandwiched between Spain’s big players Rioja and Ribera del Duero.

“Though we had always been making wine, there was a turning point in 1990. That was the year the first bottle with a Monte Amán label came onto the market,” explains Asunción. Prior to that, in 1985, her father Adolfo Barbadillo, had decided to plant 12 hectares of the local variety of Tempranillo, known as Tinta del País, and overhaul the family’s winemaking facilities and equipment.

“I joined the management and sales team in 1996, while my brother Juan ran the winery,” she recalls. “Today we own 30 hectares under vines, which we intend to keep expanding, and we are proud to set standards in the region,” declares Asunción.

Monte Amán’s manager is equally satisfied when explaining that official acknowledgement of DO Arlanza, which came through in the month of April, was “a dream come true: to be able to endorse our wine with the highest seal of quality”.

This achievement was an acknowledgement to the personal efforts of each and every one of the winemakers who resolved to stay in the area. “In the 1940s there were 15,000 hectares under vines in Ribera de Arlanza. Today, despite all our joint efforts over the past ten years, there are only 1,000. People migrated out of the countryside and vineyards fell fallow. For those of us who stayed, working the soil and fighting to keep the land alive was a daily challenge. To many of us, D.O. endorsement is a huge source of personal satisfaction,” states Asunción, with contained emotion.