THE DREAM of JAVIER REVERTE The dream of Ramón Bilbao JAVIER REVERTE This book is not for sale. LEGAL NOTICE: All rights reserved. Except as specifically agreed in writing, and subject to the civil or criminal actions and the corresponding compensation for damages, the following acts are prohibited: (1) the copyright work may not be reproduced, distributed, communicated to the public, or transformed, in relation to the work as a whole or any part of it, either directly or indirectly; (2) the protected design may not be used by any third party; such use shall cover, in particular, the making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting, or using of a product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied, or stocking such a product for those purposes. PUBLISHED BY: Ramón Bilbao Winery. PUBLISHER: Ramón Bilbao Winery. EDITORIAL TEAM: Carmen Giné, Rodolfo Bastida, Carmen Bielsa and Clara Isabel Haba. AUTHOR: Javier Reverte. COORDINATION: Ramón Bilbao Winery Marketing Team. ART, LAYOUT AND FRONT COVER: Mi Abuela No Lo Entiende. ILLUSTRATIONS: Alex Ferreiro. DOCUMENTALIST: José Luis Gómez Urdáñez. © Javier Reverte © Bodegas Ramón Bilbao S.A. 2018 Avda Santo Domingo, 34 36200 – Haro (La Rioja) FIRST EDITION: JUNIO 2018. ISBN: 13-978-84-09-01944-1. LEGAL DEPOSIT: LR-619-2018. PRINTED IN SPAIN Foreword and acknowledgements RODOLFO BASTIDA Bringing together in this small book you are currently holding elements and words such as "legend", "entrepreneur", "dreams", history", "avant-garde", "exploration" or “wine” has been no easy task. This project is the culmination of months of hard work involving over a dozen people which has finally seen the light of day. 5 "The Dream of Ramón Bilbao" is the result of personal inquisitiveness, unsatisfied curiosity and ultimately of a job well-done. Ramón Bilbao is today one of the leading brands in the national wine sector, a brand whose origins are unknown to many, despite being just less than a hundred years old and being launched in the 1920s in La Rioja. Knowing our history is as vital as knowing our present and continuing to build our future. Ramón Bilbao was a pioneer with an inquisitive mind who arrived in the heart of what today is known as the Rioja Alta and who channelled his countless concerns and efforts through wine. This book aims to serve as a tribute to a visionary who just less than 100 years ago decided to begin a journey which changed everything; a return to the origins of the man who started a legend whose epilogue is still far from being written. Learning more about the founder of Ramón Bilbao Winery required highly demanding in-depth work to put into words the story of who he really was and how he embarked on an entrepreneurial venture which we are incredibly proud of today. For this reason, I would here like to thank José Luis Gómez Urdáñez for his untiring documentation work and also Félix Prieto, grandson of Ramón Bilbao, his wife, Isabel Abrisqueta, and their sons, Mikel, Iñaki and Javier, whose testimonies were vital to discover episodes from Ramón's life, his visionary entrepreneurial character and the ins and outs of a passionate unknown life. Anecdotes and real stories which were essential to construct this work, in which Reinaldo Pozo, Mari Carmen Irazola, María Jesús Ezquerra, Carlos V. Hernaez and Paula Zuñiga have also participated. Of course, my eternal gratitude to one of the most relevant authors in contemporary Spanish literature, Javier Reverte, relentless traveller and writer, whose prose has been a key element in embodying in this one book the journey began by Ramón Bilbao to believe and create a unique one- of-a-kind wine whose legacy we currently aim to continue. 6 Javier is a man who shares with Ramón Bilbao (the man and the brand) a set of values and attributes: an inquisitive honest spontaneous and brave mind, which in the following pages will enable us to look at life with different eyes, to look for new horizons, to enjoy our spirit of adventure. Lastly, I would not want to forget to emphasize or remind you of the figure of a person who always believed in our wine and who in 1999 decided to get behind a business project which today is more relevant than ever: Don Emilio Restoy Zamora, tireless explorer of new challenges, heir of an extraordinary project, a man who is tremendously inspiring and whose legacy is alive today more than ever, whose dreams and spirit are very present in this book. A story, a mixture of fantasy and reality, legend and history, which will enable us to discover how by changing how we look at life, life itself changes. Our journey begins here. Rodolfo Bastida CEO Ramón Bilbao Winery 7 The dream of Ramón Bilbao JAVIER REVERTE amón moved away from the neatly arranged rows of wooden boxes and barrels in the enormous warehouse of the outskirts of Haro. All were ready to be loaded onto the carts that would 8 distribute them to dozens of different destinations. Taken to Bilbao, and from there to ports in France, principally Bordeaux, on the Garonne estuary, or otherwise deposited in sheds near the station, from where they would be sent to other regions in the north of Spain, especially the Basque Country. These boxes were the expression of Ramón’s flourishing glory, the finest of all his adventures, the much yearned for goal over so many years of care and sleepless nights. His name was displayed on each box: Ramón Bilbao. The boxes contained the same miraculous produce to which he had devoted the latter years of his life and for which he had strived so hard: wine. Despite the size of the warehouse, the fragrance emanating from the barrels invaded the air. It was an aroma which intermingled minerals, flowers, fruits and spices… the deep smell of purest nature, in short, innermost Earth. It might not have been intoxicating, but it did raise the spirits, giving a shot of vitality to the blood, associating the scene with the world’s essence, the very roots of existence. In such a way that, as the poets had mused over the centuries, wine might be something sacred, perhaps the closest relative to nectar, the legendary drink of the gods of Antiquity. The ghost of Bacchus might have been lurking in the corners of that enormous warehouse in Rioja. And along with him, the ghosts of other vestal virgins, muses, and playful fauns. Ramón tried to unravel the significance of the miracle. What was the strange process which culminated in that type of red liquid? It all started with an old and ugly trunk buried in the earth which grew branches and leaves from under which, around early summer, rows of acidic fruit dangled, ripening under the 9 powerful sun. By and by, the fruit would acquire a sweet taste and, when crushed inside a barrel, a juice was released which would start to ferment naturally until producing that red liquid called wine. At that moment, whoever drank it might feel like a hero of old, one of those who fought the very gods themselves on the fields of Troy. What arcane mystery did the miracle entail? Yes, the prodigy of wine. And now Ramón had that miraculous red liquid before his eyes, ready to go far and delight the souls and taste buds of countless unknown men and women. Ramón thought himself a realistic fellow, fact-friendly and not much given to fantasy. But he was an inveterate entrepreneur at the same time, never content to settle for things as they are, who thought almost everything in life was susceptible to transformation. And that sufficient willpower, boldness, imagination, and perhaps a little luck, could help open up new paths of existence. All of these qualities —boldness, effort, creativity, and an entrepreneurial spirit— were fundamental for getting involved in an activity such as winemaking. Because no reality is born from mere fantasy, and everything susceptible of being created requires a strong dose of spirit, struggle, and inventiveness. And wine was, above all, an act of creation. Ramón kept asking himself “How can it be that, a soul-intoxicating, will-fortifying liquid can come from a fruit born of a stubby, ugly plant?” And the formula was clear: by believing, by working hard, without second thoughts, and being open to utopia. Ramón was made for wine, because he brought together all of these qualities and had the nature of those who occupy themselves with that miraculous 10 produce, born of the earth, and touched perhaps by the invisible hand of the gods of today and yesteryear. How much work had it taken him to get this far? The lines of donkey and mule driven carts were waiting outside, held back by the muleteers. The young warehouse lads awaited the order to start loading the boxes of bottles and barrels. Soon they would depart from Haro to the four points of the compass. Roads lay open ahead, and in some cases, terrible days of travel before destinations were reached, with hours of exhausting marches over mountain routes and paths, often lashed by the rain and cold of the coming winter. Despite it all, fortune smiled on Ramón Bilbao’s enterprise. There was no turning back. Prosperity was there, within reach. And he could touch the future, a future Ramón had forged for himself with tenacity and struggle. Just past the age of forty, Ramón could already cherish success. But there was something else, something which encouraged him to continue his work and not let-up : the awareness that there was still much to be done, and that he ought to fulfil other long-standing desires, like finding the way to produce the very best wine; and enriching the ones he already produced, endowing them with greater appeal and captivating fragrances.