VDP: Where and how did you get the wine bug?

Pedro Ballesteros Torres: At the University, while studying biochemistry during my Agrofood Engineer programme. I started by loving fermentations, then agriculture, then the wine itself and finally what wine means for people

VDP: Your first encounter with German wines?

Pedro Ballesteros Torres: 1995, a journalist trip to Mosel, from Belgium1992 in Mosel tasting wines in a winegrowers small cozy carage.

VDP: What is your favourite story to tell about German/VDP.wine – did you have highly emotional experience with our wines / producers?

Pedro Ballesteros Torres: I try hard to have emotional experiences in wine. With German wines it is not very difficult. I feel emotions with many wines:
•    With great riesling because it is, above all, the most sensual beverage on Earth. In those occasions when you need to share emotions, I have no doubts on which wine to choose.
•    Silvaner is the wine of intellectual compassion, it is the favourite companion of humble and aware people. You need to pay attention to get to it. Exclusive because of its subtlety
•    Spätburgunder is for extroverted emotions: rich, exuberant, often quite obvious, electrifyingly intense in the best cases.
•    Sekt is bubbles of emotion, bubble of the blood that gets hot, bubbles of the words expelled with love, bubbles of the noisy shared joy

VDP: How many bottles of German wine/VDP.wines do you have in your cellar?

Pedro Ballesteros Torres: About 150 bottles.

VDP: What is your favourite vineyard in Germany – and why?

Pedro Ballesteros Torres: Maybe Bernkasteller DOCTOR, because of that magic position facing the sun, the river and the observer, or maybe Schloss Johannisberg because of the sounds of history and because I receive my Weinakademiker title there, or maybe Jesuitengarten because it is a divine grape garden, or maybe Henkerberg im Kaiserstuhl because it is an amazing geological rarity. All of them and many more, I think that the point of GG is diversity, it would be non-sense if there is a winnerI would like to mention not just one but a few and my favourites are in Mosel and Saar; Ockfener BOCKSTEIN always makes beautiful and intriguing wines from kabinett to noble sweets and GG’s, Trittenheimer APOTHEKE really gets you when driving over the Trittenheim bridge watching the steep vineyards and the view from the top of the hill on the border of Leiwen and Trittenheim is just stunning. RÖTTGEN in Winningen must have one of the most beautiful views in Mosel. Matthias Knebel’s Instagram keeps you updated with almost daily pictures from his homesite.

VDP: If it comes to German grape varieties, what is your favourite? Riesling, Spätburgunder or other?

Pedro Ballesteros Torres: As a wine lover, I like to change to betray my most beloved wines tasting many others. What I appreciate most about wine is diversity. No favoritesRiesling has always been my big love, but I’m also enthustiastic about e.g. Silvaner, Scheurebe, Lemberger and Frühburgunder.