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”
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 on: January 2 2010 • Categorized in: Wineries
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.
