Pago de los Capellanes is one of the classic wineries of the Ribera del Duero appellation. Founded in 1996 by husband and wife Paco Rodero and Concha Villa, their daughter Estefanía is now working full-time for the company. With production between 800,000 and 950,000 bottles each year, Pago de los Capellanes now work exclusively with the Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) variety.
Located in Pedrosa de Duero (Burgos), home to other emblematic wineries such as Carmelo Rodero and Hnos. Pérez Pascas, the Capellanes estate is situated around a group of eight centuries-old walnut trees that form a rectangle, much like a cloister. Like other properties in the region, this one once belonged to the Church, and the winery’s name is in fact a nod to the chaplains (capellanes) from the parish of Pedrosa, who used to frequent the place back in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The Rodero-Villa family owns 125 hectares of Tinto Fino vines, all of which make use of trellis systems. The vineyard is divided into 35 plots that are vinified separately; yields are limited to 5,000 kilo/ha. The ageing process takes place in an underground cellar, designed by architect Jesús Manzanares, with a depth reaching 10 metres. The wines rest in 22 different types of new French oak casks (one to three years old) select-ed based on their origin (Allier, Nevers, Centre), dried outdoors (between 24 and 60 months) and toasted.
The winery markets five wines. Those with the highest production (both around 400,000 bottles) are Pago de los Capellanes Joven Roble (€14), a blend from 20 plots with five months of ageing in new 300-litre casks, and Pago de los Capellanes Crianza (€26), a blend from 18 plots that is aged for 12 months. Pago de los Capellanes Reserva (60,000 bottles, 14 months, €40) comes from two plots and is bottled without being filtered or clarified. The top range includes two single-vineyard wines: Pago de los Capellanes Parcela El Nogal (€569 and 22,000 bottles), which comes from six hectares of sandy loam soil, where the grapes are left to mature longest on the vines – reflected in the opulent, enveloping style of the wine; and the exclusive Pago de los Capellanes Parcela El Picón (€170 and 2,200 bottles), which comes from a two-hectare plot with clay loam soil and a gravel surface, considered to be the winery’s best wine for ageing in the bottle.
Their latest release from Ribera del Duero starting in the 2020 vintage is Un Sueño en las Alturas. Grapes come from the high-elevation vineyards that the Rodero Vila family has been buying for some years in villages on the left bank of the Duero river in Burgos, such as Fuentenebro, Pardilla and Honrrubia de la Cuesta, with contrasting soils (reddish tones with a high presence of mica, feldspar and quartz). The winemaking process differs from the rest of the winery's reds, as Un Sueño en las Alturas is aged for one year in foudre and two years in bottle.
Pago de los Capellanes offers guided tours of its facilities, all of which begin with a viewing of the video Un año en Pago de los Capellanes (One year at Pago de los Capellanes), a short by Javier Rodero Villa, son of the founders, which was awarded first prize at the 2011 Oenovidéo Festival in Paris. The family is also considering hosting tasting courses at the winery in future.
In 2014 Pago de los Capellanes launched the brand O Luar do Sil in Valdeorras to produce Godello whites. Since 2016 they have a winery of their own in the village of Larouco with a capacity to handle 200,000 kg of grapes. They also own 30Ha of vines. The range includes a young Godello that was first released in the 2016 vintage (120,000 bottles, €12 in Spain); a benchmark Godello aged under lees (45,000 bottles, €22), and a barrel-fermented white (4,000 bottles, €25). The latest addition is Vides de Córgomo (around 3,000 bottles, €43). Grapes are sourced from several small plots on slate soils in Córgomo, a parish of Villamartín de Valdeorras, on the northern bank of the river Sil.The wine is then fermented and aged for eight months with its lees in a myriad of containers: stainless steel vats, an egg-shaped concrete tank, a French oak foudre and 500-litre acacia barrels.
