Image by Ryan Opaz via Flickr

Every winery and wine family have a story to tell, but few get the chance to tell it to a wide audience through the medium of film, and in particular with the artistic expression of a documentary film maker and artist such as Zev Robinson.

Zev, originally from the UK & Canada, comes from a Fine Art background, and it shows in his work. However, it seems he has found the medium of film documentaries to be a great way to capture the histories and the personalities behind the wine stories he is witnessing while currently living in Spain.

Zev has already succesfully released his labour of love about a little known grape, La Bobal, and has continued to train his camera on the wine culture of both Spain and Portugal ever since.

One of these subjects was the Vivanco family from Rioja where he spent over a year recording the first-hand accounts of three generations of the family who started out as local grape growers and have become one of the most influential families in the region. This is about their passion for wine culture, and Rioja in particular. It is about their winery, Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco, but it is also about their Museum of Wine Culture, and the Dinastia Vivanco Foundation. It is a very personal account about how this came about, in their own words, but very much through the documentary-maker’s eyes.

Zev has described in detail how his film came about on his own site, and I recommend reading it:

“Of all the many remarkable stories and interviews for which I am very grateful to have shared, that of Pedro Vivanco has to rank as the most incredible and unique.” Zev Robinson

The result is “Dinastia Vivanco: Giving Back to Wine What Wine has Given Us” which will see its first full premiere in London on March 17th 2011 at the Roxy Bar & Screen on Borough High Street. (see below for the preview, and click on the link to go to the Facebook Event page).

There are still a few £10 tickets for this premiere as well as a guest list of wine, film and London bloggers and media.

The premiere will be a chance to try some of the Dinastia Vivanco wines during the reception before the film, but also in an exclusive tasting after the screening, where we can also hear your views on the documentary.

For more information, and to book tickets, visit the Roxy Bar & Screen site or contact me at robert@thirstforrioja.co.uk about getting on the guest list.

I’ve been conducting tastings of Dinastia Vivanco wines for 7 years, and in all that time, whenever we had a full dinner to match our wines to, I had to apologise when we got to the dessert as “Dinastia Vivanco don’t make sweet wines“.

Dried out grapes on the vine in January

I was very surprised to hear, therefore, not only that Rafael Vivanco WILL be making an experimental quantity of a sweet wine, but that there is an ancient local tradition of these ‘raisined wines’ in Rioja. To be fair, it is a largely forgotten tradition, but it is well-known enough that the Rioja DOCa should be accepting these wines as ‘Rioja’.

Below is the press release that went out today which you can read on PR Web too, but you can get in touch with me, or even come to Bibendum‘s Annual Tasting in London today (January 26th, 2011) to speak to Rafael if you are in town.

Vivanco and the January Vintage in Rioja

Wine Culture has always been the thread that strings together developments at Dinastia Vivanco. On this occasion, Rafael Vivanco, winemaker at Dinastia Vivanco, is proposing to rediscover an ancient, deep-rooted Rioja tradition now sadly forgotten; the sweet wines known locally as “Vinos Supurados” or “Raisined Wines”.

The winery harvested the grapes for the Raisined Wine in Briones on Wednesday 19^th January 2011. These grapes were the Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo grapes from the El Cantillo vineyard that surrounds the winery in Briones. One of Rafael Vivanco’s experimental projects, this research project is driven by his passion to recover and promote the diversity and richness of Rioja’s winemaking heritage. This will be the second vintage of this wine as a tiny quantity was made in 2009 to provide technical experience and parameters for future vintages.

The Rioja “Raisined Wine” tradition is part of an ancient, local grape growers’ custom of storing grapes at home to eat, dried, until Christmas. They usually selected the most mature fruit and loose bunches (often Garnacha) that would be desiccated after a few months – hence the translation as “Raisined”, or even “Shrivelled” and “Rotten”. At Christmas the remaining bunches would be pressed and fermented in demijohns or other receptacles. The result, once fermentation had stopped after a few months, was a wine with very high residual sugar. This wine, sweet but fresh thanks to the remaining acidity, was used both as a dessert wine and medicinally, for its ‘restorative’ properties.

The Dinastia Vivanco grapes used for this vinification of Raisined Wine have remained on the vine in search of the benefits of noble rot (botrytis). As the agent of some of the world’s most prestigious wines, such as Sauternes, this noble rot, encouraged by the early morning vineyard mists rising from the nearby River Ebro, will add complexity and longevity to the resulting wine. Rafael Vivanco has experience of making these unique wines from his own winemaking education in Bordeaux in 1999.

The high profile award is particularly gratifying for Dinastia Vivanco as it reflects the views of consumers as well as wine trade professionals. Verema boasts a very dedicated readership, with 420,000 unique visitors creating 2 million page views each month. It attracts a wide range of members from around the Spanish-speaking world with a combination of wine, food and travel content including online tastings as well as physical events.

The award also underscores the influence and potential of social networks for sharing the culture of wine. Dinastia Vivanco recognises this and is participating in the online wine conversation on Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, and, through their Foundation, recently launched a major initiative by making their entire Documentation Centre available online.

The Verema Prizes will be awarded at the 9th Verema Encounter taking place in Valencia on the 19th and 20th of February, 2010″

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Dinastia Vivanco hosted over 150 guests from the conference, including speakers, organisers, delegates and exhibitors to a dinner in Dinastia Vivanco’s restaurant at the Wine Culture Museum.

Here is a brief video of the event, including a personal thank you (in English and Spanish) from brothers Santiago and Rafael Vivanco:

[Look out for, amongst others: Gary Vaynerchuck, Kevin Zraly, Miguel Torres, Stephen Spurrier, Jose Peñin, Carlos Falco and Robert Joseph as well as members of the international wine trade]

Video by Eduardo Benito of http://www.winescreen.com/

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He is apparently very excited about the results, so we may have a great way of sharing more information about the Vivanco family, their history and their passions very soon. In the interim, check out the trailer he put together:

Dinastía Vivanco from Zev Robinson on Vimeo.

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There is much made of the connection of wine and art, with artists all over the world creating pieces that inspire them, but rarely are the very biggest names in art connected so clearly with wine. I have not seen the exhibition myself yet, but will add pictures and video as soon as I do. If you’ve seen it, do let me know what you think:

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Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco and its Museum of the Culture of Wine announced that the temporary exhibition entitled “Vivanco Reserve” is now open to the public.

Until March 14th 2010, visitors will have the unique occasion to see 24 items from the Vivanco family vaults that have never been shown before, from iconic masters including: Picasso, Tápies, Miró, Barceló, Juan Gris, Dürer, Lichtenstein and Hogarth.

Santiago Vivanco, director of the Museum of Wine Culture, launched the Vivanco Reserve exhibition accompanied by Pedro Sanz, President of La Rioja, and Luis Alegre, Cultural Advisor to the local government of La Rioja.

“This unique exhibition is important in establishing an historical and cultural context for appreciating wine, and the role it has played in societies around the globe. It encapsulates the connection between the two worlds of Culture and Wine, and underscores Dinastia Vivanco’s determination to showcase great art as well bring the worlds of art and wine together,” says Santiago Vivanco.

Visitors will be able to experience the culture of wine through paintings, sculpture and engraving. The assembled works stretch across the globe and through time from a Greco-Buddhist relief depicting the gods Pancika and Hariti from the Ghandaran culture of 1st century Pakistan, through Flemish paintings of de Caullery and De Wit, engravings by William Hogarth to modernist painting and lithography by Picasso, Miro and Juan Gris.

This exhibition takes place in the public areas of the Dinastia Vivanco Museum of the Culture of Wine in Briones, La Rioja, Spain, and is free to view.

Update (19/10/2009): I found a link to a video with some of the pieces from this exhibition. I apologise for the music though!

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The Wine Gang celebrate their 1 year anniversary this month.

If you are not familiar of The Wine Gang (TWG), it is 5 of the UK’s most influential wine writers and communicators – Tim Atkin, Olly Smith, Tom Cannavan, Joanna Simon & Anthony Rose, who collaborate to put together a monthly newsletter with hundreds of their most recent tasting notes and buying tips.

There is a lot of content about wine on the internet, but the content TWG are providing comes from their privileged access to top tastings as well as their undoubted skill as tasters and comunicators. It is not an easy time to create a paid-for newsletter business model on the internet where everything seems to be being given away free these days, but they have managed to make a success of their new venture, so reaching the 1 year milestone ought to be celebrated.

Encouraging more people to discover wine and to buy better, more rewarding wines, is a goal that Dinastia Vivanco is happy to celebrate, so it seemed a great opportunity to help to spread the Culture of Wine by offering to create a unique prize for TWG subscribers.

Any paid-for subscriber of TWG has a chance of winning a three day trip for two to Rioja to visit the region AND a special visit to Dinastia Vivanco as well.

The main event of the visit will be to spend a day, along with one of The Wine Gang, as guests of Dinastia Vivanco. You will visit the facilities in the company Rafael Vivanco who will give you a personal tour of the ‘tribute to wine’ the Vivanco family have built in the mediaeval town of Briones.

In the winery you’ll discover how Rioja is made, and taste the different ages, grapes and styles of Rioja wines, and maybe even discover white and rose Rioja for the first time. This tour will also include an exclusive opportunity to taste future releases straight from the barrels in the underground winery and cellar.

You will get to see hundreds of wine treasures in the Dinastia Vivanco Museum of the Culture of Wine including films, art, sculpture, archaeological artefacts, corkscrews, glassware; in short, anything and everything to do with wine’s development over many thousands of years.

Finally, you will be treated to some fabulous Riojan cuisine in the Museum’s restaurant that boasts panoramic views over the family’s vineyards and the Cantabrian mountain range.

Sound good? Check out The Wine Gang and subscribe now to have a chance to enter the competition.

If you win, you might even get to star in some future posts on this blog – what MORE could you ask for!?

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I have two copies of the book here already to give away, but I am going to hold off announcing the winners until I have a bit more news for everyone else as to how you can get hold of the book in the UK and US. Sorry!

I hope to work out a way to get this book to you in a timely and cost effective manner – and I have a couple of options.

More soon.

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I will write something up more fully today, but in the interim, here is a video I made (very quickly and with no planning) last night. If you want to win a copy, you can send me a message on twitter (@thirstforrioja) or leave me a comment on this blog post. Please tell me why I should send the book to you.

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