“My Castile, dye me your purple, fill me with strong hands,
Embrace me among your mountains, make me pray in your temples and,
With your dry word, you who are history tell me that I am great.”
This poem was written by Andrés Septien Alonso together with his brother Álvaro, and is the prologue to the crime novel book presented under the title What we carry inside. The poem presides over the label of Boticario de Silos from Burgos, a red wine by Andrés Septien with which he hopes that “the person who drinks it feels special, perceiving that they are drinking something special.” Bodega Septien is one of the latest additions to the emerging DO Arlanza, a project brimming with enthusiasm. It started as a hobby, and in a very short time it has become a passion. This winegrower and agronomist who has been a secondary school teacher (of physics, chemistry and mathematics), has left almost everything for wine after doing internships in the Bierzo DO (in the León-based Bodegas y Viñedos Merayo, in San Andrés de Montejos) . He is still plagued by doubts at the age of 38, but he sees that he “is liking the project,” and this encourages him and gives him impetus. He crosses his fingers and says he hopes everything “turns out well.” The first wines from him already show an interesting level.
It started in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, with only 2,000 bottles made by hand in a garage in Santo Domingo de Silos. Now Andrés Septien already produces around 15,000 bottles after moving to two garages in Puentedura that have already become too small (one of 15 and the other of 28 m²). He is a one-man band. All work is done personally. He owns one hectare of vineyard out of the total of 7 hectares of vineyards from which this small wine project is supplied. His desire is to recover old vineyards, but he recognizes the difficulty of acquiring them. In the future he plans to till his vineyards with animal traction. He has baptized his first donkey with the name Apothecary. The winegrowers from whom he buys grapes also have donkeys. He exports 10% of his production. The United States and Norway are its main international markets. In Spain it distributes its Alma Vinos Únicos wines, and in Catalonia Clos Terroir.
Andrés Septien explains that “the main word with which we could describe our winery and our wines is excitement, excitement to see this project completed to which we dedicate so many hours so that people enjoy our wines, as much as we do making them.” And he adds that "another word that identifies us is affection, affection for the environment, for the region and for our appreciated people that we try to transmit through these wines that tell us about what Arlanza and Santo Domingo de Silos are." He is very clear about what his main goal is: that his project “transcends beyond.”
The Boticario de Silos wines (there is also a white version) take their name from the old pharmacy of the Santo Domingo de Silos monastery. The pharmacy is from the beginning of the 18th century (1705). It was made up of the specialized botanical garden, the biochemical laboratory, the library and the botamen. As stated by the monastery of the Benedictine order, “the visitor can also admire the conservation of the shelves, with their wonderful jars for potions and remedies; as well as the ovens, retorts, alembics and other instruments for cooking and quenching substances, with their air between Faustian or alchemical and scientific beginnings, which this old place of prayer and work, of historical memory and culture of centuries keeps.
The pharmacy operated until the Confiscation of Mendizábal, in 1835. It was recovered thanks to Juan de Aguirre y Achútegui, who bought it from Octavio Castrillo in 1927 and gave it to the abbey when everything was completed to be sold and transferred abroad. Between 1957 and 1967, the monastery recovered three lots of shelves, jars and drawers, until it integrated the entire set that can be seen today. The abbey has a library with about 400 volumes and a botamen with about 400 jars, all of them made of earthenware, made expressly for the Silos apothecary, with the monastery's coat of arms. The room where it is exhibited to the public is from the period, but not the original location of the pharmacy.
Boticario de Silos red 2021 is the fruit of an old high-altitude vineyard, planted 85 years ago at 980 meters above sea level, with an east-west orientation. It is made with the Tempranillo, Garnacha Tinta and Mencia varieties, and with a touch of 5% white varieties. Its grapes are from the El Caballo estate, located in the heights of Covarrubias (in the Arlanza region of Burgos). They were harvested on September 30. Andrés Septien likes to age his wines on lees until January, including his reds. He looks for a minimum extraction. He only wets his hat by sinking it with his hands into the barrels with open lids. The must from the grapes of each hawthorn is fermented and aged separately. Their microvinifications are separated by soils and orientations.
Tasted sample number 1,130 of a total of 2,005 bottles of this vintage (all of them hand-numbered). Medium-high layer, and the color of cherry cherries. It shows a lot of fruit, on a lactic background: red and black fruit yogurt. It is a very polished and round wine, with good balance and that reflects the personality of its meticulous producer. It is aged in wood for 12 months, in French oak barrels with a capacity of 400 liters, and its 13.5% of alcohol is very well integrated into the wine. It stands out for its very good acidity. It is very long, fluid and fresh. Young but highly prepared. The winery recommends decanting it and serving it at a temperature of 18º C.
This wine accompanies with excellence local preparations such as blood sausage from Burgos (the one from Covarrubias is ideal), a pincho or some lamb chops with vine shoots or some sweetbreads or grilled lamb kidneys. And it is also ideal to harmonize with a fresh cheese from Burgos made with sheep and cow milk. Andrés Septien especially likes to harmonize it with the venison loin with oyster mushrooms accompanied by game perigourdine sauce, rose hips and thyme air from the La Lobita restaurant in Navaleno (Soria).
He states that “there is no better way to accompany this wine than with products from the surrounding mountains: the roe deer, an animal that lives among our vineyards (and which sometimes suffer from it); the oyster mushroom (the excellence of the shepherds of Castile, people so abundant in those places in the past and who today are an endangered species); the sauce made from the juices from stewing the roe deer with herbs, truffle and the same wine; the rosehip (which is a wild rose berry, infinite amount of vitamin C and which transports you to childhood); and finally an air of mountain thyme (to transport you to the place where said grapes grow). All of this gives the sensation of eating among the vineyards.” Although Andrés also likes to pair his red Boticario de Silos with a simple potato omelette with undercooked onion.
