Dark, opulent and seductive red wine from Ribera del Duero.
Along the banks of the Duro River, Bodega Pago de Carraovejas grows their grapes. The fields are 850 meters above sea level, and this height helps to lower the temperature just enough to achieve the perfect balance in the wine. During the day, the grapes absorb sun and heat from above, and from the sun’s reflections in the water of the Duoro River. When darkness falls, the grapes cool down again and the ripening process goes into hibernation. This interaction ensures a long and continuous ripening process, which is essential for making high-quality Tempranillo wine.
The grapes go through an insanely thorough selection process. First on the vine, where you only harvest grapes that have reached perfect maturity. Anything that hits the side of the disc is discarded. After this, sorting takes place again in the winery, where grapes and bunches with defects are removed with the precision of Michelin tweezers. The grapes are fermented with their own yeast culture, so that the wine, in the farm’s own words, is imbued with the character and expression of the Carraoveja valley.
Vinification takes place in a mixture of temperature-regulated steel tanks and French oak barrels. The wine is then transferred to a combination of new and slightly used French and American casks, where the wine ages for 12 months and achieves its dense, full-bodied and harmonious style.
In the 2020 vintage, the wine is made from a blend consisting of 92% Tempranillo, while the rest is made up of 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Merlot.
In the glass, it expresses itself with notes of sun-ripened plums, blackberries, licorice, some spices and a touch of cask. A wine that is full-bodied and harmonious, and that will go just as well with food as with good conversation.
About Bodega Pago de Carraovejas
The string of pearls of major producers in Ribera del Duero is almost endless. Over the past ten years, Pago de Carraovejas has made the line one name longer, because the dense and super full-bodied wines from here impress critics around the world. Here you will find wines with lots of character, fruit and nuances, and you will find wines with elegance, crisp acid balance and impressive intensity. Originally, it was a restaurateur in the area who couldn’t find a wine that lived up to the level he wanted to serve in his restaurant, so he decided to make it himself. Today, his son has run the winery right up to the top level among the largest and most important in Ribera del Duero.
The story of Bodega Pago de Carraovejas
For José Maria Ruiz Aragoneses, who opened his own restaurant in Segovia in 1982, it had always been a truth, and it would also end up being his entrance ticket to a career as a winemaker. At the time, Ribera del Duero wines were primarily a local phenomenon served in the area’s restaurants in simple ceramic jugs. Ruiz changed that when he started buying the slightly better bottled wines, but he was never completely satisfied. His signature dish at the restaurant was the Castilian specialty roast suckling pig, which he thought deserved to be accompanied by a much better wine. When he couldn’t find it immediately, he decided to make it himself.
Among the most significant in Ribera del Duero
It was the start of a wine adventure which, with the founding of Pago de Carraovejas, brought José Maria right up among the most important Ribera del Duero producers. In 1987, he headed a group of wine-loving investors who were looking for the perfect place to establish a winery. The choice fell on Peñafiel and the south-west facing slopes and terraces of Carraovejas (“path of the sheep”), which from ancient times had a reputation for being the terroir where the grapes ripened best. Unlike many others, they did not invest in fields already planted with vines, but instead selected exactly the clones that could fulfill the ambitions José Maria Ruiz Aragoneses had with his wine. The vines were planted at an altitude of up to 850 meters on an area of 25 hectares, and in 1991 the first wines could be bottled.
Bodega Pago de Carraovejas today
Since then, Pago de Carraovejas has grown to a considerable size. 200 ha are now planted with wine – primarily tinto fino (Tempranillo) and also smaller amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which are incorporated with great success into the bodega’s various cuvées. Overall, success characterizes the development the winery has undergone. An impressive winery, which is continuously expanded and modernized, is the framework for the production of the house’s high-quality wines, which are all produced with the greatest care and stored in the over 3,000 oak barrels the bodega has in its cellars.
In 2007, José Maria left the day-to-day management to his son Pedro. He had originally trained as a psychologist and worked in the first years after his graduation as a couples therapist and social psychologist respectively at the Red Cross, before opening his own practice. Still, he – unlike his four brothers – ended up following in his father’s footsteps, and it turned out to be a good decision. In just over 10 years, Pago de Carraovajes has grown from 15 to 90 employees, and production is now up to approx. 850,000 bottles per year.
