In this second part of the podcast Sólido y Líquido, Javier Bañales delves into the role of dynamism in historic wineries and calls for unprejudiced discovery. Tradition and emotion go hand in hand in a way of understanding wine that does not seek immediacy, but truth.

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To be a great classic, you have to be a great young man first.

I have worked in three family wineries and although it seems that there is more immobility in this type of wineries, the truth is that they are often very dynamic wineries. Sometimes the henhouse has to be stirred up a bit and someone from outside has to come in to see things that from the inside, from a more romantic or affectionate point of view, are sometimes not appreciated.

Surrounding yourself with good professionals and being permeable to trends can create necessary revolutions, revolutions that often set the trend to remain classics. You can’t go to sleep because 130 years, which is how old we are, is nothing in history. They are to talk about our history, but often what we have to talk about is the level of activation of the projects.

History per se is not sexy; active and endearing history is. It invites you to approach a winery like ours, which was a very active part of the creation of the appellation. First came the wineries and then the appellations. The only way to become old is to be a great young man and having freshness and youth is the only way for you to perpetuate all this. Wines are long-lived because they have freshness, because they have acidity, because they have vitality. A classic winery is the same, they have to keep those flashes and not stay anchored. They have to have those active moments of sparkle, of innovation, of going out of their comfort zone. That is what keeps us alive.

More bottles need to be opened and prejudices need to be removed.

I still encourage everyone not to wait for a better occasion to drink a wine, because it never comes. Great wines, great experiences accumulate in the memory. If someone has to keep it, we will keep it. I simply encourage people to continue to have that spirit, to instil that spirit of discovery, of travelling through wines, of not always drinking the same thing.

That’s super boring. And to give everything a chance. And this is applicable to many other things. One day we can be seeing an exhibition of graffiti and tomorrow we can go to see a painting by Goya. And on both occasions we can enjoy ourselves.

I think what we have to do is to have the sensitivity to discover, to have the uncertainty of sometimes discovering and being wrong. Get it wrong with little money, but get it wrong, because it’s the only way to enjoy yourself and get to know things. Y sobre todo fuera prejuicios en todos los aspectos de la vida, pero especialmente en el vino. Yo creo que hay una cosa, yo no odio muchas veAnd, above all, to get rid of prejudices in all aspects of life, but especially in wine. I think there is one thing, I don’t often hate anything, but it’s true that I get very nervous about prejudices, don’t I? Of the boxes and waistcoats that have been put on certain things.ces nada, pero sí que es verdad que me pone muy nervioso el tema de los prejuicios, ¿no? De las casillas y chalecos que han puesto determinadas cosas.

Abrámonos un poco y disfrutemos y descorchemos.