Tradition
A dream that began as what seemed like an absurd business: a warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by mountains, in the middle of the alcarria, a hostile environment for a delicate grape. They called us crazy.
Architecture
We make the most of the environment, with the respect that the land deserves, we adapt the architecture of the winery, forming a unique symbiosis, both in its dimensions and in its external appearance. We cannot force the terroir to follow its own rhythms, so our production process must be exquisite.
Passion
The creation of a good wine is an art in itself that requires vocation, dedication and a style of its own. For this vocation we pay a high price, it is hard work, there are those who still do not understand us … until they taste our wines.
Handcrafted
We collect the grapes in boxes of 15Kg, and quickly put them in the cold rooms so that their fermentation begins at the right time. Each cluster is manually selected and sent by gravity to its first fermentation tank.
After being in the barrel, it is bottled, but our wines, like everything good in life, require time and stability. Under the hill on which the winery sits we hide our greatest treasure, the bottle racks where with care and patience we allow our wines to mature slowly until reaching their optimum state.
Art
The landscape marks you, forces you and distinguishes you, that’s why those who work with nature end up getting infected with its beauty by trying to recreate it. All the elements of this winery have been inspired, thought out and artistically intervened with the aspiration of creating something beautiful. Inspiration permeates our walls and each element in a harmony made for the enjoyment of the senses.
Organic Pago wine
Calzadilla is one of the few wineries in the world that has a D.O. Its own due to its unique climate and soil conditions that make its wine and vineyards have unique characteristics, enhanced by its highly artisanal and respectful practices.
The vineyard and the Protected Designation of Origin Pago Calzadilla
A terroir with a unique composition and conditions that has allowed us to have our own Denomination of Origin. We have managed to bring the qualities of these vineyards to our wines while respecting this virgin land through organic farming.
A unique Terroir
Pago Calzadilla is located in the Río Mayor Valley, at an altitude of between 900 and 1,000 meters. The valley’s microclimate, with frequent fogs and winds, protects the vineyard from dangerous spring frosts and brings freshness to summer nights.
The Pago comprises 22 hectares of vineyards with limited production. Planting began in 1980 with 3 varieties: Tempranillo, Garnacha and Cabernet-Sauvignon. Later, in 1992, the Syrah variety was introduced, all cultivated on trellises, mainly on the slopes of Cerro La Pájara, at 1,000 m altitude.
The fruit is pampered at every stage of the process: manual harvesting is carried out in boxes of 15 kg. Before fermentation, bunches are cooled and selected. Grapes, musts and wines are moved by gravity without any pumping.
A winery designed to merge with the vineyard
Our vineyard and our winery do not make sense without each other. The size of the different plots and the grape variety are fitted for the wine we want to get, and our winery has been built to harbour the fruit of our vineyard. Both have been growing hand in hand to maintain the philosophy of Pago wine that characterizes us, using only our local grape production and cultivating the varieties that our wines need.
Winery and vineyard are aesthetically blended. The quality of the grape and the practical needs of our traditional and organic farming prevail in the vineyard, but we have managed to assemble all this into a genuinely beautiful whole in which it is difficult to distinguish whether the winery was created to complete the vineyard or if it started growing around it.
Mineral constituents of our soils
Poor soil, rich wine
This saying holds a great truth, namely the boom in wine production have showed two basic mistakes being made: the cultivation of the vine on fertile soils treated and prepared over generations for other crops, and the use of varieties not adapted to the soil, with very vigorous growths. The consumer must know that the best fruit for the must come from poor soils.
This peculiarity of our soil is complemented by the singularity of a mineral exclusive to the area, lapis specularis, crystallized plaster that confers singularity to the Pago.
Organic farming on a virgin soil without contaminating
The land on which Pago Calzadilla sits has not been exploited by modern agriculture, the chemicals that flood contemporary agriculture are not present in our land, our grapes or our wines.
This option is labour-intensive daily in Pago Calzadilla; fertilization with our own compost, pest and wildlife control are only part of the daily tasks that we must undertake without the “help” of chemistry. We don’t indulge in demagogy with the convenience of using these products, it’s just that they don’t fit into our way of understanding wine, and we want it out of our production. This decision concerns all the stages of the ageing of our wines, and is carried out by eliminating additives and other products during the fermentation of the grape in casks.
WE HANDLE EVERY PLOT INDIVIDUALLY
It has always been said that wine is borne in the vineyard, where the most important decisions are made. With this value in mind we do not understand the habit of setting a day to start the harvest of the whole estate. Surely it is cheaper and would take much less work, but what about the conditions of each type of grape, height of the plot, orientation, hours of sunshine, water, temperatures during each hour of the day… Each plot is unique!
This is Paula’s greatest responsibility throughout the year, controlling the needs of the soil, the amount of irrigation, the perfect time to harvest each plot to have the best grapes for the best wine.
