LA RUTA DE DON FEDERICO — ADVENTURE IN LANDS OF THE DUERO

Passionate about “authentic viniculture” the Scot Frederick Pollock arrived in Salamanca on the back of his motorcycle, without plans or a fixed destination, and seduced by its wine traditions and history decided to start a new life. Now he shares his experiences on guided tours for foreign travellers.

BY HENAR MARTÍN PUENTES

He is a lover of Spain and that is instantly apparent in his way of speaking. He knows as few others do the history and character of the people of our country. Not in vain has he travelled every inch of our geography (though not yet the region of Murcia). An inexhaustible source of wisdom that impresses as soon as you start a conversation with him. With his distinguishing measured tone, he recounts like few can his anecdotes lived during one of his travels around the world, and just as readily astounds you with some connecting detail between mythology and the origins of the Iberian Peninsula. A vast knowledge that perhaps contrasts with his celtic appearance, betraying his Scottish origins.

Frederick Pollock has become a Salmantino (citizen of Salamanca), and in so doing has charmed many of the inhabitants of the city. Just seven years ago, at this exact moment of autumn’s awakening, he made camp in lands bathed by the River Tormes, carried by chance, as he himself affirms. “I had just closed a stage of my working life and started out on a voyage of discovery by motorcycle. I didn’t really know what my destination was going to be, I thought of Italy or Greece for their culture of wine — something that has always attracted me. Out of the blue, as I was crossing France, I received a call from a friend in Girona whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. He had had an accident in a fall with a horse and was convalescing. I decided to go visit him. I had never been to the north of Spain and I set out to explore it.

“After touring the Cantabrian coast and arriving in Santiago de Compostela, I continued my journey through Zamora until I made a stop in Salamanca. I remember thinking what a beautiful place! With culture and an incomparable old town,” he relates in perfect Castilian with a characteristic English accent in the purest Michael Robinson style, learned during these past years thanks to his teacher and friend, Jesús.

“When I arrived I only knew how to say “a beer, please and thank you,” he quips. He is speaking to us during a break in the intense schedule that marks his routine. He teaches English, plays the guitar, performs DJ sessions (he loves music and is a collector of vinyl records), perfects his Spanish and in between times he enjoys doing what he likes the most: teaching the culture of wine.

An unexpected trip to nowhere in particular turned into a course of no return where he found a new life in which he shows foreign tourists the beauty and charm of places hidden away in the Sierra de Salamanca, the heart of Las Arribes, the culture of wine from the Ribera del Duero, Burgos or the terroir of Verdejo. His client base comes from California and elsewhere in the United States, Scotland, Norway, Ireland, Austria, Italy and even Hong Kong.

Don Federico, as he is known, has become much more than just a simple tour guide. He is a master teacher enamoured by the beauty of our villages. “Here I have found something different, ancient, original,” he says. Through his experiences, which last 5 days although he adapts to the needs of each client, his guests discover the ‘intra-history’ of the people who grow indigenous grapes in the Sierra de Salamanca, with visits to traditional timber and stone presses, extraordinary underground cellars and tastings of unique wines. He professes a love of the lesser known autochthonous varieties such as Rufete or Juan García. “One of my passions is to proselytise the original viniculture that I have found in Castile and León to foreigners. I am a devotee of white rufete, a distinct, unique, rare variety,” he proclaims. He is fanatical about the monovarietal and assemblage wines that are made with native grapes in such renowned wineries as La Zorra, el Hato y el Garabato or Bodegas Cámbrico. “I prefer to discover that type of bodega where they craft wines with personality and depth of character, something different that cannot be found in just any wine,” he says.

An open window

He avoids using the word tour because of the connotation it carries, as Pollock’s trips are not a simple commercial tourist consumer service to avail and leave behind. His routes are true experiences thought through from the heart, they are a window that opens to reveal the lives of the people who populate every nook of the land. At 55, Frederick has become a full-fledged Hispanicist, a scholar of our culture, not only in terms of knowledge, but also in his way of putting into practice an appreciation of life in the Mediterranean culture. It’s evident Pollock has understood well the lesson that you have to squeeze every day to the fullest.

For him the true treasure of wine is abundant in Spain. “I always tell my clients that Spain is the original wine font for all of Europe. With more than 3,000 years of vinicultural history from the time of the Phoenicians to the present day. It’s ironic that it takes a Scotsman to point that out,” he says with his characteristic sense of humour.

Literature is present in every verse of his life. On his website (rutadonfederico.com) he chooses a quotation by Alfred, Lord Tennyson from his poem Ulysses which, as a type of mantra, sums up the personality of Don Federico: ‘I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees’ which translates into Spanish as ‘No puedo descansar del viaje: beberé la vida hasta las lías.’ And that has carried this romantic through his many adventures. Since he was a teenager he has journeyed across more than fifty countries, crossing jungles, deserts and mountains from the Arctic Circle to the Tierra del Fuego, the Big Sur to the Great Barrier Reef. He travelled solo round India for three months on a classic Enfield motorcycle, covering 15,000 kilometres on a route that reached the Himalayas.

However, in another past life Frederick worked as an executive for large companies. After studying his degree in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Glasgow, he decided to dedicate himself to a frenetic and stressful business life that gave him much satisfaction but few moments for relaxation. In a sudden hiatus he set out to see the world on the back of his Triumph up till the point he fell upon the Iberian Peninsula. “I had always been inspired to travel across Spain by a book that I had read when I was young: a memoir by Laurie Lee (As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning) that recounts the experiences of a British lad who came here between the world wars and walked Spain from the north (Vigo) to the south (Málaga). Despite having made many motorcycle trips elsewhere, that influenced me to do so here,” he confesses.

That unexpected stop in the city of Salamanca turned into a stay of three months to learn Spanish and later, into six months, a year… and so on until the seven years that he has now been travelling the back roads and endless medieval towns of Castile.

Frederick Pollock is one of those characters you have to encounter at least once in life for the energy and vitality that he transmits. The perfect travel companion with whom to share a suitcase and a glass of good wine. A full-fledged bon vivant. “I have made a home here. I love inviting people to my house for dinner and to open a bottle of wine and to savour a good Scotch whisky. I am very proud of my life in Spain,” he sums up.

Frederick has found the peace that he longed for in the many trips that have led him to journey across the five continents. Now he seems determined to put down roots in the charro capital where he has recently acquired a home and from where he nurtures his multiple medium and long-term plans.

A unique experience among the vines

Frederick Pollock is passionate about the “authentic” viniculture that he has found in Castile and León. He professes to be an admirer of autochthonous varieties such as the Rufete, Bruñal, Juan García or Verdejo. He is impressed by the elaborations and blends that are made in the region and especially in the Sierra de Salamanca. During his experiences for foreign tourists Don Federico (as he is known) shows them this ‘window’ not only to the area’s wines, but to the people who populate the little unknown places. His routes, of 5 days or tailored to the client, go through medieval villages, farmlands, 500-year-old underground cellars dug by hand by the winemakers’ ancestors, wineries and hidden castles. A unique wine experience.

More information: rutadonfederico.com