Fermoselle
Zamora · Castile and León
DO Arribes1.131inhabitants
1205first mention
1252wine documented
A town in the Sayago comarca (Zamora), in the Arribes del Duero, set on a granite promontory near the confluence of the Duero and the Tormes. There are remains of pre-Roman and Roman settlement; in the Middle Ages it was a lordship of the bishops of Zamora.
First mention: In December 1205 Alfonso IX of León gave the diocese of Zamora and its bishop Martín what the king held in “the town of Sayago called Fermoselle”. The old identification with Ocelo Duri is not certain.
The legend
privilege to sell wine, 13th century (Alfonso X); more than 400 bodegas in 1752; medieval or earlier dating of the bodegas: legendThe wine banned in Zamora and the town of a thousand bodegas
Fermoselle, perched above the canyons of the Duero and the Tormes, has lived from wine for centuries. As early as the 13th century a privilege of Alfonso X allowed it to sell wine in the district of Sayago, first in exchange for troops and later for money, while the Zamora town council banned Fermoselle wine from entering the city in order to protect its own. Beneath their houses, the townspeople dug hundreds of bodegas with picks into the granite and gneiss: in 1752 the Catastro de Ensenada counted more than four hundred, most of them under dwellings, with vats that were bought and sold independently. The town says that some date from the time of the Jews who lived in the town in the late Middle Ages, or are even older, although that dating is oral tradition.
Alive today: Fermoselle is the municipality with the most commercial bodegas registered in the DO Arribes (recognised in 2007), which work mainly with Juan García and Bruñal on terraces above the Duero. Its historic rock-cut bodegas can be visited as part of the Fermoselle Villa del Vino project, promoted by the EGTC Duero-Douro, and of the Ruta del Vino Arribes.
Wineries and their wines
- Bruneo Bruñal
- Bruneo Juan García
- Bruneo Malvasía
Wine towns nearby