The Bodegas

 Casa Primicia

Casa Primicia are our Rioja wine suppliers. It is located in the heart of the Rioja Alavesa region at Laguardia. The family has been involved in the production of quality rioja wine for generations. Casa Primicia is based in the oldest building in the town of Laguardia. From the 15th century onwards, the Church used to collect tithes from its serfs, consisting of one tenth of the harvest, including grapes, and made wine in this building and its cellars.

In 1973 Julián Madrid, whose offspring now run the firm, rescued the historic building, restored the long cellars and started to make wine once more in the stone troughs. Casa Primicia Wineries came into being.

Casa Primicia Wineries' vineyard stretches from land situated at the foot of the Cantabrian Mountains to slopes near the River Ebro. This mountain chain and river are the natural northern and southern boundaries of the Alavese Rioja region. Elciego, Oyón, Lapuebla and, above all, Laguardia are where our own 50-plus hectares, plus the holdings of 40 growers from the region, are situated. These vineyards supply the winery every year with the most important factor in achieving a good wine: good grapes. A wine is made on the vine. Casa Primicia believes in correct pruning, using natural fertilizers, not using herbicides, but focusing on suitable treatments and systematic monitoring of the output in kilograms of grapes per hectare.

Casa Primicia Wineries has obtained numerous awards at national and international level. In recent years, it is the only winery in Spain that can claim to have won the Grand Prix d'Honneur at the prestigious Bordeaux Fair in 1993 and the prize for Best European Wine at the 2002 Japan Wine Challenge in Tokyo. Visit Casa Primicia

Ribera del Duero: Bodegas Hemar

The town of Fuentecén (Burgos) is located at the heart of the Ribera del Duero wine region. This town is home to Bodega y Viñedo Fuentecén SL, a firm that makes and sells wines under the Ribera del Duero Designation of Origin.

The Bodega is primarily a family concern and the family’s efforts at ensuring the highest quality in every step of the process, from the vine to the bottle, is rewarded by a unique wine with an unmistakable personality and great contrasts.

In 2003, the Heras Martín family began to make its premium wines: Hemar and
Llanum - wines of unprecedented quality.The vineyards are located in the municipality of Fuentecén, planted on gravelly, chalky-clay soil. The oldest vines are planted in stony soil, half-way up a slope, at an altitude of 750 m above sea level. The slope’s south-southeast orientation ensures adequate sun exposure. The vines average 20 years in age. Annual production does not exceed 4,000 kilos per hectare.

The Bodega obtains its grapes from a total of 35 hectares of vineyards. The grape variety is Tempranillo.

Llanum comes from a very particular terroir, the Pago del Llano, with a stony topsoil and chalky-clay subsoil. This vineyard, planted with Tempranillo, expresses great concentration and quality. The climate of Fuentecén has significant temperature contrasts between day and night and variable rainfall throughout the year. All these conditions combine to make Llanum an excellent wine, with marked characteristics arising from the land whence it comes. Visit Bodegas Hemar

Priorat Celler Sabate

Celler Sabaté is situated in the district of Priorat, in the small village of La Vilella Baixa, in Catalonia. The cellar is part of the Priorat Denomination of Origin of Quality (D.O.Q Priorat).

The winery is 100% family owned. Since 1910, several generations of the same family have been involved in the production of the wine using traditional craft methods. New fermentation techniques in inox deposits have however been introduced. Moreover, the elaboration process and the cultivation of the land enables the family to price their wines competitively in contrast to other wines of the area.

The names of the wines is MAS PLANTADETA. This is the name of the main house on the vineyard. There are 6 wines in the portfolio, including young reds, half aged reds and whites and crianza reds. The wine produced by Celler Sabaté comes exclusively from the vineyards of the family property and from their own harvest.

The vineyards have an average of 35 years old, with Grenache being the main variety of grapes, but other vines such as Carignan and  Cabernet Sauvignon are also cultivated. Grapes are aged in French and Hungarian oak casks to obtain the excellent quality of wines from the D.O.Q Priorat. Visit Celler Sabate

Montsant: Mas de les Vinyes

Mas de les Vinyes is a small family owned and managed vineyard in Catalunya and is part of the Montsant Denominacion d’Origen. The area encircles designated priorat denominacion and has similar geographical and climactic characteristics. El Priorat is a region made up of 23 municipalities, 14 of which form part of the Montsant D.O.: La Bisbal de Falset, Cabacés, Capçanes, Cornudella de Montsant, La Figuera, Els Guiamets, Marçà, Margalef, El Masroig, Pradell, La Torre de Fontaubella, and Ulldemolins, as well as the municipalities of Falset, El Molar, Garcia and Móra la Nova, and Darmós and La Serra d'Almos on the banks of the Ebre River.

Mas de les Vinyes is a family business devoted mainly to growing vines, but also olives and fruit trees. The family has been on the ranch since the 1930s, when the grandparents ran the house. In the 1960s however Emili Borràs the current head of the family, became the owner.

Although wine has always been produced on the ranch, it was traditionally sold to the village co-operative until the harvest in the year 2000, when the family began to make it on the property under the seal Celler Mas de les Vinyes.

The wine that is made at Mas de les Vinyes comes from grapes grown only on the property, which allows the family to have absolute control over the product throughout the whole process. The vines are for the most part old and head pruned, although a gradual process of renewal has been underway for several years now.

The wine appellation of D.O. Montsant covers a very small area, where grape production oscillates around 10 million kilos. There are around 2,000 hectares (4,942 Acres) under vine and there are around fifty wineries. Most of the wines produced are red, made using traditional grape varieties, Grenache (Garnatxa in Catalan) and Carignan (Carinyena in Catalan). These varieties give full-bodied wines which are particularly suited to ageing in oak. Montsant red wines are well balanced and aromatic.

As for the Montsant white wines, the traditional grape varieties are White Grenache (Garnatxa blanca in Catalan) and Macabeo (Macabeu in Catalan). The whites from this appellation are known for their silkiness, their great taste, structure and elegant and subtle aromas.

Rosé wines from Montsant are steadily gaining ground. They are highly aromatic, silky, with intense fruits of the forest flavours.

The D.O. Montsant (Designation of Origin or wine appellation) despite being a fairly new wine appellation has years of wine-making history behind it. Wine experts and press consider it to be an up and coming region and prestigious magazines such as “The Wine Spectator” have declared it to be “a great discovery”.

The quality of Montsant wines is key to their success, as too is their great quality-price ratio. The prestigious Spanish wine guide, “Guia Peñin” agrees that “the quality of Montsant wines and their great prices make this region an excellent alternative.” Visit Mas de les Vinyes

Penedes: Marti Serda

Martí Serdà is a vineyard within the Demonacion d’Origen Penedes. The Penedes wine making region is tucked away between the coastal hills, southwest of Barcelona in Catalonia, Northeast Spain. It is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the whole of Europe.

In an area of predominant white grape varieties, Penedes is best known for its Cava but it also produces high quality oak aged reds and still white wines. Our vineyard is located in the heart of the area in a small village at 240 metres (Santa Fe del Penedes). The vineyard is owned by family members whose previous generations have a long history of wine growing. The wines include red and white young wines as well as crianzas and reservas. There is also a sparkling white.

Martí Serdà produce a full range of red and white penedes wines. These include both red, white and rose wines from traditional Penedes grape varieties such as tempranillo, garnancha, macabeo, xarello, and parellada but also higher quality oak aged crianzas and reservas using vines such as merlot, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay.

Mas ferreny is a particularly high quality red reserva made from a mixture of cabernet sauvignon and merlot and aged in French and American oak casks. This is only produced in better years and there are only limited quantities. There is a light semi-sparkling wine, white and rose, and they have recently introduced a new white Riesling type wine.

Martí Serdà have won a number of awards in prestigious competitions for their superior Crianza and Reserva Wines. The reserva, Mas ferreny, won a silver medal in the 2005, concurso international de vino.

The bodega won silver and gold awards in the mundus vini competition in 2007 for its Chardonnay 2005 and Cabernet Sauvignon 2001.

In an international competition in 2003 involving 10 top sommeliers the cabernet sauvignon won gold. Visit Marti Serda