Personalities

Pablo Alvarez: It takes a lifetime to make wine
"Sommelier.ru" №14 (40)/2005

Pablo Alvarez owns one of the most mysterious and legendary estates in the world — Pago de la Vega Santa Cecilia y Carrascal.

Since 1929 this Ribera-del-Duero winery, better known as Vega Sicilia, has been making the most expensive wines of Spain. The estate changed hands several times before it was bought by the father of the current owner. Eleonora Scholes had a opportunity to talk to Pablo Alvarez during the event organised by Primum Familiae Vini association.

- Vega Sicilia wines have been selling in Russia for some time, but you chose to visit Moscow only now. Does it mean that Russia has become an important market for you?

- I think that Russian market is a new market, 7 or 8 years old. Maybe at the moment you consume not big quantities of wine, but I am sure that the future consumption of wine will increase. Some people say that now Russia, and more exactly Moscow, can sell very expensive wines. But what is more important is that people have the wine culture and like their wine. This is more valuable for the wineries in a long term. It is very normal for a country where they don’t consume wine to begin with the most expensive, well known wines. But in future it is more important that normal people are be interested in wine.

- How are the sales going for your wines?

- Very positively. Our production is small. We export to 65 countries and we can’t sell big volumes to each country. It’s all quoted. We like to work slowly and for the future. Time runs very quickly. We are always short of it. In the wine business time is critical.

- At the moment there is tough competition even among premium wines. What are your strengths that will allow your wine to survive, say, in a 100 years time?

- I think it is possible to continue our work in a hundred years. There are many new wines nowadays. This is good but production of great wines is very limited, because all in the wine has been discovered. It is possible to make better wines, but the difference between a good wine and a great wine is in the terroir — the combination of soil, climate and man. I think all the great wines can exist in the world, and it is very good that we people can drink all great wines. If they can buy it — that’s another problem.

- What in your view are recent trends for Spanish wines and for wines of the world?

- Spain is the second or the third wine producer in the world. But we must think that 30 years ago the wine in Spain was food more than culture. In the last 10-20 years the wine culture in Spain has gradually increased. Maybe Spain’s revolution in the wine has been the factor. There are a lot of wineries these days. For example, in 1982 there was 6 cooperatives and 12 wineries. Today there are more than 200 wineries. Now the revolution in Spain is necessary in the vineyard. People don’t know their vineyards. It is very difficult to know them. Now you can have Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot everywhere, but Napa Valley is one thing, Chile is another thing. It is very important to have many years of experience to know the vineyards. I remember how one wine producer in San Francisco told me, ’I have had a vineyard for 15 years and I now know it perfectly’. Our vineyard is 140 years old and I don’t know it! It’s even more difficult because every vintage is different.

- What are your plans for the future? Shall we see expansion or new projects?

- We have 4 wineries — three in Spain and one in Tokaj region. Our philosophy is not to make quantity production. We try to make the best wine in every place where we stay. For that matter production will never increase by much. Our philosophy is to try to make better the wine every year. This is our future, but it requires many-many years. I say that it takes a lifetime to make a wine. Last year we started a new winery in Toro region and I wrote to our customers the same. A life is necessary to make wine, and my life is not enough.

- Toro is getting very much spoken about these days.

- We have been there for a long time, but never disclosed the fact to the public, so nobody knew. The announcement was in 1998 that Vega-Sicilia is staying in Toro. It is a very old region. We think that with the quality of terroir it is possible to make not great, but very good wine. We have two wineries in Ribera del Duero and can say that it is possible for us to make good wines in Toro — like in Ribera del Duero. Now in Toro wines you can have the complexity, the elegance of a Ribera del Duero wine. I always say that if in Ribera del Duero it is possible to make wines of 10 points, in Toro region it is very difficult to obtain more than 8 points. These wines are easy to understand, more simple and many people like them. Like with hobby, there are different levels. If we take a hundred people, 50% stay at the first level, 10% go to the next, and only very few arrive to understand the complexity of various wines. I can that see when we make tasting of Pintia, Alion, Valbuena and Unico. For us this is order in the quality. And we can see that many people can understand Pintia and Alion. Valbuena is not understood that well by many. Very few understand Unico, but it is famous, so there is a lot of interest to it. In fact, only few really appreciate it.

- What do you think about the role of a new producer Peter Sisseck in the region?

- We are friends. He lives very close to us, about five kilometres away. He makes very good wines. Small production, very similar philosophy. Maybe Peter Sisseck is more modern in style, but I respect his products. I think that many wines are loosing personality and they seem to be all the same. It is not good. For the consumer it is necessary to see different personalities. And for us it is very important through our vineyards to keep the personality of our wines. One likes them more or less, but the wine is full of personality.

- What about your project in Tokaj? Why did you decide to make sweet wines?

- For the prestige of the Tokaj region. Tokaj was one of the marvelous and oldest dessert wines in the world. I think it is a great wine. It was the most famous wine in the world between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. During the socialist period the quality disappeared. I think it is necessary to recuperate the vineyards and quality of the wine. The problem is that nowadays we don’t remember how to produce the old Tokaji. We produce Tokaj in modern style. Maybe if now we taste the wines of 60 years old, nobody will like them. In old days it was necessary to make wines with high alcohol, like 16-17 degrees, so that it could travel. Now after 2 glasses of such wine we can be under the chair. The evolution of style is a good and necessary thing.

- Vega-Sicilia belongs to one of the greatest wine estates in the world. How do you feel about being part of it?

- For me it’s a great honour and a great responsibility. I love my work and I think it is a great responsibility to keep and to increase the quality and prestige. But I also think that now we know how to achieve it. It is necessary to move slowly, and everything will be ok.