New wine from Pablo Calatayud
A tribute to his employees
We have been working with Pablo Calatayud for over 20 years. The first vintage of Les Alcusses was in 2000. Back then, he sent us a large box of oranges from Valencia, with a magnum of Maduresa at the center, his top wine at the time.
And that Maduresa and those oranges convinced us immediately! 😊 What an authentic wine and such delicious oranges!
25 years later, history repeats itself!
In the last order from Valencia in 2024, there was not only half a pallet of oranges included as a gift for all our employees but also his new top wine! Unfortunately, I can’t sell you the oranges; they’ve already been distributed at year-end…
But that new top wine is truly amazing!
The beautiful part is the story behind the name. It says nothing about the terroir or grapes but everything about the person Pablo Calatayud is. What a kind and inspiring winemaker!
The name is indeed “Ferrero & Senís” as a new series (in addition to his classics “Alcusses” and “Maduresa”...
This “Pebrella”, is the first in the series “Ferrero & Senís”. And who are Ferrero and Senís? Simply two of his employees whom he considers the cornerstones of his winery. He named his top wine as a tribute to two of his employees.
This is a wine using old forgotten grape varieties (in this case Arcos and Forcallà) with a light and elegant style.
Something to give hope for 2025!
Below is the letter Pablo wrote to us (translated into English) to introduce the wine. It is intended for internal use, but I wanted to share it with you. He started this letter on the very afternoon when heavy rains caused disasters in Valencia.
Dear friends,
something terrible happened the afternoon I started writing this letter to you and four weeks later I don't know how to finish it.
It is not easy, but we must do it. We must continue supporting and helping our friends and neighbours and the people who have suffered the consequences of this disaster, losing loved ones, homes and businesses. We need to resume our activity as soon as possible and try to recover our strength and our illusion. The letter started talking about the harvest, about how we were happy with 2024 after what we suffered in 2023, about a homemade video with scenes from the vineyard and winery that is published on social networks (1) that summarises in four minutes the work of eight weeks (where we explain some keys and highlights from the vintage) And then came the main subject, which was to celebrate the birth of a new wine.
La pebrella (thanks Dani for this beautiful label; how great Dani Nebot is) will be the first wine of the Ferrero i Senís collection. A new collection with which we would like to explore new paths A little review of the collections. The classic wines (year 2000; 1st collection; maduresa and les alcusses) are monastrell (with cariñena) and they want to explain the strength and intensity of our soil and our sun. The ancient wines (year 2010; 2nd collection; cullerot, parotet, safrà and vermell) tell us the story of those grapes from the past, about their character, their brightness and their beautiful dormant tinajas. Les filles d'Amàlia (2017; 3rd collection; les prunes and les danses) are two pink coloured whites that ride on mandó in search of a Mediterranean that is fresher and fresher The fourth, Ferrero i Senís, wants to explore another shore, the subtlest, finest and most elegant Mediterranean and it does through arcos and forcallà, the two queens of our ancient viticultural map. With the arrival of the 20th century and the bulk wine industry, winegrowers abandoned these varieties because they delivered a pale colour and low alcohol content and because they ripened very late (later than Monastrell, which is very late; the oldest people say that ‘arcos was harvested for the 1st of November’). The wines made with these grapes (we like them on their own, but even more as a blend)) show another expression, another identity, a less powerful and lighter Mediterranean wine.
La pebrella captures the essence of two special plots of very chalky soils that we ferment in the cups (the old stone lagars) with a lot of whole clusters and age underground in demijohns and clay jars. There are 4.300 bottles of the 2023 la pebrella. We have been searching for hidden treasures for many years and we are getting ready to highlight the great vineyards of these shores. La pebrella (thymus piperella) is a wild variety of thyme endemic to this region (almost impossible to find it outside it) which has a very intense aroma and brings flavour and magic to our gastronomy. Ferrero and Senís are two world-class figures that many of you know (two cornerstones of this company), and it’s also a tribute to the celler del roure family, to our team, to those who work every day taking care of the vineyards and the wines and who rarely appear in the photos. Thank you for your dedication and for all that we are creating together. Wine on a table is food, friendship, generosity, thinking of others... it’s the fruit of a land and the essence of solidary people who love, fight and resist. Life hits us sometimes, but it is worth living it and we must be thankful for it. May the magical light of la pebrella give us strength, energy and joy of life.
maduresament,
pablo calatayud
celler del roure