I’ll confess: the name won me over before the wine did. Half my family is in Sweden, I live in Madrid and I spend a good part of my free time among bottles of Ribera del Duero. So a label that says «El Sueco» (The Swede), with a brightly painted little horse, couldn’t go unnoticed. I went looking for the story at the source: the winery itself.
The family behind Virtus
El Sueco is made by Bodegas Virtus, a small winery in the DO Ribera del Duero located in Aldeyuso (Valladolid), very close to Peñafiel. On its «About us» page the López de la Osa Escribano family explains that their story brings together two passions: wine and horses. The grandfather, Mariano Escribano de la Torre, was a cavalry general, and it was he who passed his love of horses on to his grandchildren. Wine, on the other hand, came through their mother, Paloma Escribano, whom the winery presents as one of the first women entrepreneurs in the sector in the Ribera. According to the winery, the story began in 1986, with Peñafiel castle as a witness.
In 2012, Íñigo López de la Osa Escribano and his wife, Francesca Franco, relaunched the project with a big investment in the winery. That’s where the Virtus we know today comes from.
So why «El Sueco»?
Here’s what I can state with sources. In the fact sheet for El Sueco 2022 the winery writes that the label «features the illustration of a Dalecarlian horse, one of the symbols of Sweden, the country where Íñigo López de la Osa was born».
In other words: Íñigo was born in Sweden and the label pays tribute to that country with its most recognisable object. The dalahäst, the carved and painted wooden horse from the Dalarna region (Dalecarlia in English), is in every Swedish home I know, including my family’s. It makes perfect sense that a winery of horse lovers should choose a horse, of all things, to talk about Sweden.
What I haven’t found is a text from the winery that literally says «the wine is called El Sueco because…». I’ll go with what the winery does write: a Swedish label for a winemaker born in Sweden.
El Sueco 2022, according to the winery
Details from the official fact sheet on virtuswine.com, checked today:
- DO Ribera del Duero, crianza category.
- 100 % Tempranillo from dry-farmed vineyards aged 35 to 80 years: the estate’s own organic vines around the winery and slopes in Sotillo de la Ribera and Hontoria de Valdearados.
- Hand-harvested into 14 kg crates, sorted on a table and vinified plot by plot in small steel tanks.
- 10 % goes through malolactic in French oak barrels, and ageing is 12 months on lees.
- 14.5 % ABV; production of 34,656 bottles and 242 magnums.
- The winery’s tasting note talks about black fruit, liquorice, black pepper, scrubland and toasty notes, with velvety tannins. The winery says you can drink it now or keep it for three to five years.
- Price in the winery’s shop: 23,00 € (RRP checked on 22 October 2026; it may change).
The same house also makes an El Sueco Albillo Mayor, a white from the Ribera’s native white grape. I’ll save that one for another story.
Something to listen to
If the wine has a Swedish soul, the music should too. I suggest «Visa från Utanmyra», by Jan Johansson, from the album Jazz på svenska (1964). It’s a folk song from Dalarna, the same region as the little horse, turned into piano jazz with a serene double bass. In Sweden it’s almost a household anthem. With a glass of Ribera Tempranillo, it tastes of home to me twice over.
Want more Ribera reds? Have a look at my reds.
♪ Enjoy it with Visa från Utanmyra · Jan Johansson
Swedish jazz from 1964: a folk song from Dalarna played on the piano with calm and swing. Dalarna is the home of the little horse on the label.
