From my very first venture into wine, in August 1983, I fell in love with Spain. I'll even go one further: it was a sunny Spanish bottle, that made me decide to choose this profession! The powerful, concentrated, often complex flavours intrigued me and I decided to map out the many Spanish grape varieties one by one, as was already happening in France and Italy. However, as Spain was not yet part of the European Community at that time, this was far from easy: the quota system meant that I could only import a limited quantity of wine. As a young importer, I was soon forced to change my plans.
Today, I think the time has come to tuck into Spain once again! With Raices I want to look for the best that the original grape varieties have to offer. What wines will this produce? What typifies them? And what's the story behind it? I dream of making a didactic journey full of surprises through this wine country, which deserves to be embraced by way more people in my opinion.
That's why, from the start of the project, we decided to work with local growers, under the supervision of my good friend Ruben Magallanes, and excellent winemaker.
Salud!
Mark Schiettekat