Bodega Alta Pavina, the sensitive Pinot Noir in the tough Castile

  

One of the wines that aroused the tasters’ curiosity is the Pinot Noir of Alta Pavina, an explosion of feelings. Its celebrity is such that our friends, who were on holidays in Spain, had the winery in its list of “places to visit”. Therefore, we contacted the winery and we arranged a visit with meal included. This is the story of the experience:

The winery is located very near to the small village of La Parrilla. The winery is very strange because it used to be a farm where there were pigs, cows and chickens. Therefore, when you arrive you can see two cereal silos, which confuses the visitor.  

In La Parrilla, the Patron Saint is San Francisco de San Miguel. He was born in 1543 and died martyr in Nagasaki (Japan) when he was crucified the 5^th February of 1597. He was beatified by the Pope Pius IX the 8^th June of 1862.

Around the winery are the vineyards with an extension of 24.8 acres, the 70% is Pinot Noir and the rest is Cabernet Savignon. The vineyard is surrounded by a lush pine forest. It is a small winery, almost a “garage” winery, where you can breathe peace and good work. Claude Bourguignon is French and he is the technical adviser who works for the winery of Burgundy, Romanée-Conti. This is probably the most prestigious winery of the world.  

We visit the vineyards, first the one of Pinot Noir, where the stock is in espalier and drip irrigation. When tasting the grapes “of the grandsons” we notice their light skin. The bunches are called “of the grandsons” because they do not ripen at the same time than the rest, they grow later. Therefore, during the harvest this kind of bunch is not collected. Its flavor is very special. The grapes are oval and bunches are closed. 

In the Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard we tasted its small grape and we noticed the great difference with the Pinot grape: the skin and the flavor. This grape’s skin is thick and it makes it hard to eat, and her flavor is strong and a little sharp. This grape is round and the bunches are not so compact.

We went to see the grape reception area, where we found the stainless steel tanks. The tanks are small, only 9000 liters, but they are enough due to the small production they have.  

The casks park is mainly of French oak, but they also have Spanish and American oak casks. The Pinot Noir requires old casks whereas the Cabernet requires new ones.

Finally they showed to us the bottling line which has no label because they do it manually, and the jails where the bottles sleep before they come onto market. 

And to end this experience we had a Spanish stew cooked over low heat by Chus, and the wine tasting.  As dessert we had flan (custard) with two different coffee textures which was worth asking for the recipe.

We left the heart of Valladolid delighted to have met the people of Alta Pavina and to have seen the passion and enthusiasm they have when preparing their wines and to have tasted in situ the fruit of their work.