winery

Bodegas Alfredo Santamaria

The discovery

Sweaty manual work in Spain.

Especially with Tempranillo, it is not the machines that count, but the skill and passion of the winemaker. We owe the best Tempranillos from Cigales to Pablo and his hands.

Das Wineyard Weine entdecken

The winery

Pablo Santamaria, Alfredo's son, loves his land, his homeland and his vines. Year after year he sacrifices every drop of sweat to produce world-class, hand-made Tempranillos.

He is a bear-like little Spaniard who has his heart in the right place. Hospitality and warmth are very important to him. In his small hotel right in the winery, you feel like you're on a journey back in time, and his mother is still in the kitchen cooking the best home-cooked food for the guests, such as a juicy beef steak or a whole chuleton with fried potatoes. The wine accompaniment: of course a 100% Tempranillo from his own winery, deep red, a little rough and with a healthy amount of spice from the power of the Spanish sun. The understatement with which Pablo speaks and the way he talks about his work makes him more and more likeable the longer you listen to him. At our first meeting, he and his whole family welcomed us to his small farm in front of his cute hotel. During a tour of his winery, we become more and more aware of the simplicity with which he lives, works and produces his wines.

All organic or what?

There are many definitions of what NATURAL means in winemaking. Not all winemakers are certified to treat nature responsibly. So we check for ourselves on site whether a winemaker meets our standards for treating the natural product wine.

100% handmade

To this day, Pablo puts his last drop of sweat into his wines year after year. He doesn't have a state-of-the-art cellar or a high-tech press. Pablo works with traditional, tried-and-tested machines and conditions (basket press, concrete tanks in the rock cellar). Everything here still looks like it did in his father's time. With total dedication, the wine is brought to the rock cellars dug deep into the earth. It is incredibly narrow and dark there. But that is what Pablo grew up with. He shows us in an impressive way that you don't always have to go big! Heart, soul, tradition and family are the building blocks for excellent quality.

"Especially with Tempranillo, it is not the machines that matter, but the skill and passion of the winemaker."

barrique barrels

10°C

constantly in the rock cellar

25.000

bottles in the warehouse

The location

cradle of Tempranillo talent

Small but mighty! Cigales, one of the smallest wine-growing regions in Spain, is located in the immediate vicinity of the Ribera del Duero, but is in no way inferior to the larger and more renowned region. The approximately 2250ha large Cigales growing area is located at an altitude of approximately 750m above sea level near Valladolid. There is very little rain here, just 400mm per year. The soil is calcareous and loose. Only on a few days a year is the continental climate influenced by the Atlantic climate. The summers are warm to hot. The nights are cold.