After that visit we went to see the Museo del Vino. Luisa Sanchez, from Bodegas Mento had arranged my visit to the Museum to be as pleasant as possible. It was a very charming and didactic visit to the Museum. There you can learn a lot about wine culture. You learn in there some other way you may do in books or even in wineries or in vineyards. I could spend in there a much longer time than I did. I expect to go back the sooner the better. The last activity was a very special tasting.
Afterwards we went to a very special called Restaurante El Corralillo. The restaurant is a cave excavated on the ground with a powerful castillian atmosphere. On this restaurant I probably ate the best lamb I’ve ever taken. I know that I have used this expression (the best ever) a few times, but that is how I felt at this moment. I highly recommended this restaurant for the lamb you can eat and how well it is decorated.
I got up early on the following day just to go to Protos winery.
They received us in a small room. We were quite a big group, about 30 people. They projected a video in which we could see Protos History and how it has evolved over time. The guide was an attractive and professional woman.
The beginning of the visit comes walking through what it was the ancient cellar. It’s in perfect condition to be used at this moment though it is hard to believe that these installations are still used because handling costs involved.
We visited the area of filling and fermenters. To move to the new area of barrels, there is a passage in which, by an original solution they have divided the wide corridor into a zone for pedestrians and a zone for Fenwick trucks. I wonder how will traffic density when the winery is in full activity?
And we went to the new zone. There you mainly see modernity, technology, professionalism, a lot of space, process, temperature and product quality control. The change is amazing. With the contrast I ask myself again how small and traditional wineries can compete in quality, Marketing and quality of product with huge wineries like Protos. Because the process, the means and elaboration costs are completely different.
As a final surprise on the visit there is a magnificent view of the new facilities, a shop setting with exquisite taste and a superb lineup with Protos shown to be the best Red wine “crianza” in the world in 2006. I think that is the best message Protos could send to us as a summary of our visit. Because the objective of letting people come to a winery is concreted on these concrete words: “The best of the world”
Posted by igsegma | Enotourism | Posted on January 7th, 2010
When some body goes to Peñafiel, the first thinking is about visiting the“Museo del Vino” in the castle of Peñafiel.
As you arrive to Peñafiel you can see the castle, from several miles of distance. The view is great. The castle is over a mountain, perfectly maintained. You have a moment when you think you have gone through the time machine to the middle age. It is one of the nicest castles I have ever seen.
You can find a very good accommodation at the “Hotel Convento de las Claras”. The hotel has very nice rooms, an atractive swimingpool, a magnificent view of the castle and it is not very expensive. You have also a massage zone where you can relax after a hard day of walking and visiting.
The restaurant was not far from the hotel so we decided to go walking. I suppose that this restaurant can be very good for lunch. But what it is really cool is going to dinner.
The darkness and the river that both surround it, makes the place with something mysterious and charming. We need to go through a dark tunnel, with indirect lights. Then we arrived and we could see that the restaurant is made with taste, very special. The food and the service are also good.
I live in Pozuelo de Alarcón, quite closed to Madrid. When I have an evening like this one I wonder what the great town has to offer. I prefer 1000 times what Peñafiel offered me this evening.
Despite of Pedro´s self-financed attitude, his expectations of expansion of the winery are quite ambitious. But, wisely, he does not put a time limit to those expectations. The extensions will be made with the revenue that business will generate. (Can a small winery grow differently at this moment?)
Another thing he has clear, based on costs, is to consider what type of machine he wants to own and which he wants to rent for specific activities.
Pedro owns also another company that provides machine hire service for other wineries and for his own winery. His service is so good and his prices are so competitive that some wineries that have the machines prefer to rent his machines than using their own. (We can see there again the entrepreneurial attitude, finding a need and attending to it, and keeping controlled the costs)
Afterwards we went to visit his vineyards to see how they harvest. He has some really attractive vineyards. And he takes care of them with great detail. I was lucky to see the whole process at harvest (vintage machine, unloading truck, unloading in the warehouse, filling fermentors).
The end of the visit was a summary of what he planed to do if things go as expected. And for the way he spoke, it gave me the impression of speaking of rather a short period.
Being with someone like Pedro is like a breath of fresh air. I recall a Charles Darwin sentence. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”. I think that Peter will not have problems to get along, because one of his strengths is to have things clear. He understands the situation. He knows where we are going and what he wants, and he is making ready his companies to this new situation.
What I say it seems quite obvious but I have the feeling that many small and medium size, and a few big wineries, have not their ideas so clear. Or that is what they look like.
What is still missing Peter? Using Internet properly. But he does not have to worry about, because if he wants I will do this job for him..
I wish you good luck Pedro, but I think you even do not need it. You think you are going to get it quite soon… and I agree with you.
Posted by igsegma | Wineries | Posted on January 2nd, 2010
I was in Roa yesterday, a village in the centre of Ribera del Duero.
Pedro Hernández brought me there. I want to thank him for presenting me Pedro Frutos and his wife, owners, of Bodegas Frutos Aragón.
I enjoyed the visit a lot. Because I found a man who has very clear how to grow. We are talking about a small winery, but with a professional and larger winery ideas attitude, and with the intention to grow fast.
They are investing in installations when few companies do it now, not only on the wine sector but in any other.
He has 2 kinds of product strategies. By one side he tries to mecanize as much as he can in order to make the lowest variable cost of elaboration, with a good quality product. For this wine he has “Desafío” and he sells it at 3 euros. The “Desafío 2006” spends 9 months in french oak barrels.
Behind this name and this man there is a very interesting story. He reads and knows a lot about wine, about history and about history of wine. ¡How many nice stories there are behind many wines!
I had the opportunity to drink it later in a restaurant at dinner. I had to pay 5 times its winery price!!!!. Not bad for a restaurant to get such a huge margin. Is it excessive this margin? Is Pedro selling his wine too low? Maybe the answer is yes for both questions. But this is not new. Isnt´it?
There is another product line in wich he is focussed on quality and quality image. On this case he elaborates wine with the most expensive systems in order to get a first class quality product. A very good grape, taken at hand, the best barrels, the most controlled and cared elaboration. He intends to sell this product al 15 euros a bottle.
Pedro´s priority is an strict costs follow up, in order to be sure, that his sale prices are higher than costs prices. He operates with no banking support. This way he does not have to be thinking on banks relationship. The cost control responsible is his wife. I can realise they both make a very good team.
And I taste his wine (Viña Solorca 2004 vintage selected). The first thing that strikes me is the presence and the elegance of its bottle and label. He had mentioned previously how many problems this kind of bottle had caused him on the filling line and how he had solved it. I can say now that it was worth to do what he did. The result is a very elegant bottle with a storng personality.
But let’s talk about the wine. There is no doubt that it comes from Ribera del Duero, it takes a little time to open at nose, but when it does, it becomes extremely generous, with many shades. On the palate, full bodied, but extremely balanced and complex. Even better than at sight and nose. At the same time soft, very soft. I understand why all these prizes we had seen previously on the prizes room.
As I keep being in this wine sector I feel an increased pleasure in knowing the stories about wine, wineries and about people that are behind each wine. It is very exciting.
We ate this fantastic fish beautifully presented, accompanied of the forementioned Viña Solorca Gran Selección 2004. The chef of its kitchen joined us at the table, a polite, friendly and close man.
I actually enjoyed of a very special dinner. And I felt I was among friends, thanks to the good relationship that connects Pedro with Victor.
As I mentioned before, Victor told us about his plans, his projects, his inventions. This man has a brain full of projects. It is like a machine of making bright ideas and implementing them.
I really enjoyed his wine in his cellar. Today, several days after the visit, I opened at home other bottle ot this same wine. And I have to say that the experience has been as good as the first one.
Then I have a look at his catalog. They have quite a nice catalog.
Then, I visit his website. I have to say that I can help him on this subject…
Solorca Vineyard, a winery with two things especially remarkable. They have a fantastic wine and a very, very special owner.
There are different ways to visit a winery. The most usual is joining an organized tour.
There is another which is more attractive. It is when you are invited by the owner, the winemaker, or either the manager. When this happens you have the possibility to know many things about what’s behind a bottle of wine… its label, its colour, its flavour, the final product, the winery, the personality of the main actors.
Every time I am going to a tasting, I try to sharpen my senses in order to achieve to perceive what the wine I am tasting has special. “How difficult is to succeed in a blind tasting!”. The game changes a lot if you know the wine and you have a lot of information about a concrete winery.
On the tasting I am trying to see how each piece of information that I have fits into that product I am tasting. How was the weather of this year, the type of grape, how it has been collected, how the vineyard has been worked, characteristics of the facilities, etc. I try to discover some details that perhaps I would not be able to perceive if I had not this additional information. This wine I am tasting is not any more one among thousands. This allows me to be a lot more sensitive about getting into more little details.
Pedro Hernández introduced me to Victor Balbas, owner and manager of Bodegas Viña Solorca.Pedro is the designer of the winery we are visiting and of some others. It’s an aditional pleasure to be also with him. Because I can see how he looks at, when he is front of his works. There is a twinkle in his eyes of pride and affection in front of his own work.
Victor receives us very kindly, but he has a this moment some problems to solve that does not allow him dedicate to us all his attention. For this reason is Pedro Hernandez who makes most of the commentaries while we visit the different places in the winery. A very nice experience to listen to the winery designer!
Viña Solorca facilities are wonderful, much better than many other well known Ribera wineries. With a spectacular fill line. A beautiful barrel room has been built mainly for efficiency as the prioritary factor.
We visit the awards room in which we can see they have quite a good amount of them.
After the visit we went to the splendid dining room available to be used in feasts and meals with clients of the winery. We entered a small room. It is a this moment that I feel there is a great change in Victor´s attitude, now totally focused on us. His chef has prepared a delicious fish to be accompanied by a Viña Solorca gran Selección 2004.
This new Victor is someone mucho closer to us, exposing the many projects, ideas and inventions that he has in mind. Some of them already executed and some only on experimentation phase. He never talks about crisis but of solutions, alternatives, of trying new things. I can see now a very creative and executive man. I think he has most of the qualities that a true entrepreneur should have.
I’ have visited the fair that wines of “La Mancha” do every year when they want to show their new wines. They do it in the gardens of Atocha Station which is a wonderful place to make this kind of event.
On the way back to Madrid we decided to go to visit Cuenca. I had already been in Cuenca when I was 16 years old at school. But at this time I was a boy who had not slept the previous night, so I did not put attention to it. For this reason I had quite a limited a worng image about Cuenca
We caught a good offer to sleep at the Parador de Cuenca. We were very lucky to get to Cuenca by night, on a clear night.
At that moment it seemed to me to be in front of me the most wonderful spectacle of the world. I could see a very nice town, as taken from a fairy tale, with a lot of charm and veri well illuminated. There’s nothing like having no expectations about something. I recognize that this expression (most wonderful spectacle of the world) I’ve used it sevral times when referring about travelling, wine, and other situations. It is not my intention to establish a scientific ranking, I just want to express how I feel when I see something exceptional. As I do not earn my living as a wine taster or as a tour guide, I leave myself to express in such an emotional way. After all, what are we talking about most of the time but about emotions?
It was an amazing night, with a lot of magic. Find enclosed some images, that are not as good than what my memory recalls.
The next day we had a fantastic breakfast (the Parador is not far behind in terms of attractiveness). And we went to see the city by day. The effect that the city provoked on me was not as impresive as the one we had by night. Nevertheless , there’s nothing like the first impression for anything.
If you go to Cuenca I recommend you to do the same as I did. Arrive at early night.
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We got out of Cuenca to visit the “Ciudad Encantada” which is 20 miles away. It is quite interesting an a very good complement to what we did the previous day (Winery visit, Cuenca).
If I was the Marketing Manager of Bodegas Vicente Gandia I would consider to make a package, (visit to the winery and visit to Cuenca included) at a competitive price and making the winery´s visit a lot more attractive.
