Quick Conversations In Wine – Maria Lopez of Bodega Sarmentero
The Vancouver International Wine Festival is just around the corner, and we’d like to know more about who’s attending and what they’re interested in in the world of wine, and thought you would too. Good Wine Gal’s Barb Wild and I choose some of the women in attendance for this year’s festival and have presented them with a few quick fire questions to get to know them better. Here’s our Q + A with Maria Lopez of Bodegas Sarmentero. More on the Wine Festival here.
Proudest moment?
It’s a combination between: the first time I ran into someone in a bar and they were drinking my wine and raving about how good it was, when I passed my WSET exams and when I got chosen as associate judge for the International Wine Challenge in London.
Favorite grape variety?
Tempranillo!
Favorite wine you make? Why?
Couldn’t choose just one…but I’m very excited about Bodega Sarmentero’s newest wine coming out next year.
Favorite food? Meal?
A platter with great jamón serrano, manchego cheese, olives, bread and Spanish olive oil!
Funny thing happened on the way?
I went to Napa Valley to learn about other wine-making techniques and wine sales and (besides learning so much) I ended up “bringing” home a husband and a dog.
Yoga? Meditation? What keeps you going? wine!
I don´t practice meditation nor yoga, I probably should, but for me, nothing like a glass of wine on the couch at night.
Blundstones or Blahnik?
Blundstones
What are you looking forward to this year?
Opening our small boutique hotel right on the winery patio and having lots of people coming to taste and drink Sarmentero.
Organic, biodynamic, vegan, low alcohol wines. What are your thoughts on these?
As long as the reason behind them is not purely commercial, I think it’s great. Diversity is always fun.
Advice for women in the industry?
Work hard, you’re strong and capable of anything, go for it!
Maria Lopez
They say you see it when you get out of the forest and that’s what happened to me. After living in different cities in Spain and France, I decided to get back to what it was becoming my true passion: wine. I moved to Napa Valley to keep learning before I could fully get immersed with my family in our winery. I studied several fields such as Translation and Interpretation, Wine Chemistry, WSET III, Viticulture & Winemaking (not completed) or International Business, among others.
Bodega Sarmentero
Started under the appellation of Ribera del Duero in 2004, my mother, who’s the fourth generation of winegrowers in the family, fulfilled her dream with one barrel production. The wine was outstanding and so production kept slowly growing to what we have right now (around 1900 cases). We own seven hectares of tempranillo vines and produce rosé and red wines fermented with its natural yeasts and bacteria. We also produce a white wine made of verdejo grape, autochtonous grape from the appellation of Rueda.
