Last week I was invited to assist the USA Trade Tasting 2023 and one of the exhibitors was offering a so called “Vino de Pago”. I was surprised to see such a wine so far from home and wondered myself ho many people know what a Vino de Pago is.
So this time I'm going to talk about “Vino de Pago”.
First let's clarify the Spanish quality ladder:
1. Vinos de Mesa (table wines). These are actually all wines that do not have an official designation of origin or geographical indication. These are often the wines in the cheaper segment that, as the name suggests, are suitable to be enjoyed at the table at any time (during any hot meal), without much finesse.
2. Vino de la Tierra con Indicación Geográfica (land wine with geographical indication). There is a catch here (my personal opinion). In Spain, the government largely determines which grapes must be planted per wine-growing area in order to qualify for a quality title. If you happen to be a wine grower who doesn't care about this because you can make a super wine from another grape variety, then you will not receive a quality mark, while the wine can be many times superior to the qualified varieties. Anyway, a “Vino de la Tierra con Indicación Geográfica” is a wine from which the geographical area it comes from is known (for example “Vino de la Tierra Laujar-Alpujarra”).
3. Vino de calidad con Indicación Geográfica (quality wine with geographical indication). These are wines from certain wine regions whose grapes come from the same region and whose quality, reputation or characteristics can be attributed to the location of the growing area, the human factor, or a combination of both.
4. Denominación de Origen (wine with designation of origin). These are wines with a good reputation that meet many government requirements. To obtain DO status, the area must have been recognized as a quality wine area for 5 previous years.
5. Denominación de Origen Calificada (wine with a qualified designation of origin). Wine with a high level of quality for a long time. The first wine in this category came from Rioja (in 1991). One of the requirements for these wines is that they must have held the title “Denominación de Origen” for at least 10 years. Furthermore, the wine must be bottled at the winery itself, or that the bottling plant has an accurate quality control system.
6. Vino de Pago. This is a Spanish designation of origin for wines for which it can be guaranteed that the grapes come from a geographical zone whose specific soil characteristics are recognizable. In other words; In certain zones there is a special microclimate that, in combination with the composition of the soil, produces a grape that, despite being a well-known grape variety, cannot be compared in taste to that of its peers. It all sounds a bit complex, but I will try to explain it step by step:
• The word “Pago” is therefore the designation of origin of a specific wine-growing region whose name must traditionally descend from the vineyards on which the grapes are grown and where the dimensions of the vineyards may not be larger than those of the municipality to which they belong.
• If this “Pago” is in a “Denominación de Origen Calificada”, the word “Calificado” can be added to the wine, provided it meets the D.O.C. requirements. So it becomes a “Vino de Pago Calificado”.
• The Pago wines must be produced and bottled by the owners/title holders of the bodega itself and this must take place in the same bodega.
• All grapes used for a “Vino de Pago” must come from the vineyards of the “Pago” area and the wine must be produced, stored and aged without coming close to other wine (i.e., in isolation).
• During the production and sale of Pago wines, a careful control system is applied that even goes so far as to check exactly where they have been placed on the market. For this purpose, it is mandatory to provide every Pago wine with a special committee that continuously checks whether strict legislation is being met.
All in all quite a hassle, such a Pago wine. There are only 30 bodegas in Spain that produce this type of wine. Smart bodegas that do not meet these quality requirements sometimes want to mention the word “Pago” on the label in order to benefit from the success of the “real” wine kings, but they are not allowed to put “Vino de Pago” on it. .
¡Hasta la próxima!
Roel Peters RP-Vinos USA
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