The Rodero Villa Family - Pago De Los Capellanes & O Luar Do Sil Wines

The vineyards behind Pago de los Capellanes have a story that predates the winery itself by five centuries. In the 15th century, the chaplains of Pedrosa de Duero, a village in the heart of Castilla y León, received plots of land as payment for their services to the parish. Those plots, known locally as the Pago de los Capellanes, or Land of the Chaplains, passed through generations of local families until a modest farmer named Doroteo Rodero tended them in the early 20th century.

It was his son Paco Rodero, together with his wife Conchita Villa, who transformed those ancestral parcels into a winery. They were among the founding generation of producers in the Ribera del Duero DO, officially establishing the estate in 1996. Today, their daughter Estefanía Rodero Villa leads the project, and the winery has become one of the appellation's most respected addresses.

Ribera del Duero sits on a high plateau in central Spain, between 750 and 900 metres above sea level. The combination of intense daytime heat and cold nights produces Tinto Fino, the local name for Tempranillo, with a concentration and structure that sets Ribera del Duero apart from every other Spanish red wine region. The soils here, a mix of chalk, clay, and limestone, contribute the fine grain tannins and mineral definition that characterise the best wines.

The winery works exclusively with Tinto Fino and uses a gravity-fed cellar to move fruit from harvest to barrel without pumping, preserving the integrity of the grapes at every stage.

The range runs from the Joven Roble, a fresh and vibrant Tempranillo aged five months in French oak, through the Crianza, which spends 12 months in barrel and draws on 25-year-old vines, to the Reserva, produced in small quantities from two specific plots and bottled without filtration. At the top sits the Doroteo: a tribute to the grandfather, sourced from a single plot of vines planted in 1920, aged 36 months in fine-grain French oak and then rested at least two years in bottle before release. Fewer than 5,300 bottles are made in any given vintage.

Briffa Wine Selections is the exclusive importer of Pago de los Capellanes wines in Malta. Browse the full range and order online, with delivery across Malta.