The emperor's new cabernet

Spanish Pagos

Many comments have been made about Spain’s new premium single-estate Pago wines. Could they be the country’s answer to grand cru, or are they mere marketing hype to fleece the unwary? Sarah McCleery puts Spain’s hot properties under the spotlight

Have you read Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes? It was a favourite story of mine as a kid and I remember being enormously impressed by the young boy who shouts out from the all-admiring crowd, ‘But he hasn’t got anything on!’

It is a tale that has been at the forefront of my mind in the past few weeks as I have been getting to grips with the Spanish DO (Denominación de Origen) of Pago and the increasingly well-known private association, Grandes Pagos de España.

The Pago DO (part of Spanish wine law since 2003) has been widely lauded as Spain’s grand cru: premium single-estate wines. For an estate to receive Pago status, it must make wine only from grapes grown at the estate, which in turn must be fermented and bottled at the estate’s winery. Furthermore, the owners have to demonstrate that the estate has the right terroir and climate to produce quality wines; they must have ISO 9001 quality assurance and have a proven track record of producing quality wines with an international reputation. 

While the Pago DO is a legal accreditation, the Grandes Pagos de España is a private group of producers headed up by Spanish wine heavyweights Carlos Falcó and Victor de la Serna. Falcó’s brainchild, the organisation was established in 2000 as the Grandes Pagos de Castilla, when eight ‘small producers’ joined forces to promote and defend the concept of single-estate wines.

It is Falcó who is at the centre of the Pago campaign and his Dominio de Valdepusa estate in Castilla-La Mancha was the first in Spain to receive its own unique DO. Something of a rebel, Falcó hid Cabernet Sauvignon cuttings under a truckload of apple trees to get them over the French/Spanish border in the 1970s, so convinced was he that Cabernet would thrive at Valdepusa. It was just the start of his journey to show the potential of his site and, progressively, those of his neighbours.

In 2003, Grandes Pagos de Castilla became Grandes Pagos de España in order to take on members from across Spain. De la Serna explains: ‘The concept of Pagos is not new in Spain but it had become lost in the modern era of Spanish wines which has been dominated by a négociant model, like in Champagne, where wineries buy in grapes from contracted growers and make wines to meet a house style.’

‘It is clear that their raison d’être

is to shout from the hilltops the

merits of single-estate wines’

As I sit in one of the association’s regular meetings, you can see the members bristle at the very idea of what they regard as ‘industrial winemaking’ and it is clear that their raison d’être is to shout from the hilltops the merits of single-estate wines. All well and good, but can they really claim to be defending and promoting Spain’s very best wines?

Entry to this private association begins with a nomination from an existing member. This is then followed up with a visit to the winery and, if that goes well, a tasting of the nominated estate’s wines with those of the current members. If everyone agrees that the quality meets their standards, the estate is allowed in.

When I ask what other criteria are in place, they mention the need for the estate to be working ‘seriously and successfully’ in the marketplace – which one assumes means that the wine sells.

Favourable reviews are also considered important. When I ask the association to quantify that, they mention international critics such as Robert Parker and Steven Spurrier, in addition to mentions in the Peñín Guide to Spanish Wine. While these are solid indicators of a wine’s quality, they cannot exactly be described as rigorous or exhaustive tests for wines they are promoting as Spain’s finest. 

Both Falcó and de la Serna compare Grandes Pagos de España with Germany’s Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates (VDP), which is an ambitious parallel to draw, given that VDP members have to agree to strict controls on yields and vineyard plantings, plus regular inspections, that exceed normal appellation regulations. The VDP has fastidious standards and it is to this level that the Grandes Pagos should aspire.

In its defence, the collective is still in its infancy, and de la Serna is quick to point out that it is well aware of the need for stiffer controls as membership grows. Also encouraging is the news that the association brings its winemakers together to share information and expertise.

POWER OF TWO

The legal Pago DO is not without its own problems. To start with, it may well be a national law, but it has to be ratified by the regional governments before the bodegas that fall within its control can apply for Pago status. Since 2003, only two regional governments have done so: Castilla-La Mancha and Navarra.

With a figure like Carlos Falcó promoting the concept of Pago so fervently, it is hardly surprising that his home region of Castilla-La Mancha was first to sanction the law. It can also be argued that, as a region whose presence on the international wine scene is way behind the likes of Ribera del Duero and Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha had more to gain in having some of the country’s ‘grand cru’ wines.

‘It is easy to get swept up in the excitement,

but there is no shortage of more measured

views coming from the Spanish’

Navarra had stoically resisted the idea of sub-DOs within its region for a very long time, but it was the Chivite family (proprietor of Señorío de Arínzano) that was the key motivator in bringing DO Pago to Navarra. Long before the 2003 law, they had been lobbying to have their vineyards in the municipality of Aberin separately acknowledged with their own DO. When they first applied for Pago status, they were refused, and it was only a direct appeal to the Ministry of Agriculture that saw their application win approval.

NO GUARANTEE

With estates such as Arínzano claiming proudly that Pago is ‘the highest status for wines in Spain, above DOCa’ (Denominación de Origen Calificada), it is easy to get swept up in the excitement, but there is no shortage of more measured views coming from the Spanish themselves.

The Peñín guide says that while Pago status is ‘at the tip of the pyramid’, it ‘does not guarantee a better quality than the rest of the categories. The law does not establish the denomination by means of rigorous climatic and soil profile study of the property to establish the quality of the site, it simply means the wine has come exclusively from this territory.’ 

Pago classification, in other words, might be a guarantee of single-estate origin, and of status, but it’s not a guarantee of quality.

Another hurdle standing in the way of Pago is the resistance to its development by the two regions which hold DOCa status. To qualify for this, a region must have lower yields, more rigorous grape selection and an established track record. Unsurprisingly, winemakers in Rioja and Priorat are not ready to have their position at the top of the tree usurped. And if the proponents of the Pago system cannot get the winemakers in these two regions to buy in, then the result will be a division that will benefit no one.

Potentially confusing, too, is the widespread use of the term Pago itself. Lobbying by Falcó and his allies has resulted in a ban on new brands being registered that include the inaccurate use of the word, but as this ban is not retrospective, there are already a substantial number of Pago wines in the market that do not qualify for the term.

And critics of the scheme have a further weapon, by highlighting the seeming lack of emphasis on Spain’s unique heritage and indigenous grape varieties. It’s true that a large number of genuine DO Pago wines favour international grape varieties, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

But in terms of geographical diversity, at least, Grandes Pagos de España has a significant advantage over Pago DO, given that they are now recruiting estates from all over Spain, from Catalonia to Galicia, and it is great news that the association is seeking to identify the very best from across the country.

So ultimately it seems that talk of DO Pago as Spain’s grand cru appears to be more marketing hype than reality, and we are being asked to see what isn’t there… yet. The will and the talent are there, but the regions and winemakers now need to come together to promote a united – and fully-dressed – story of Pago.

Editorial feature from Imbibe Magazine – March/April 2010

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