www.valsotillo.com - Tel: +34 : 947532309 - Los Lagares, 71, 09441 Sotillo de la Ribera Burgos. SPAIN

Ismael Arroyo winery is better known for the name of his wines Valsotillo. Ismael Arroyo, the founder of the winery, started the family bodega in 1979 in Sotillo de la Ribera. This small winery is one of the most striking in the area because of the impressive cave from the 17th century still used for aging of the wine. The underground gallery excavated in the mountain was restored by the family and it is now filled with oak barrels and bottles. Here the wines are slowly aged at a near constant temperature of 11-12 degrees Celsius with a total absence of noise, and light. The whole Arroyo family, D. Ismael, Ramón, Miguel Angel and Marisa, is very hospitable and it is always a pleasure to visit them, admire the cellar and taste their wonderful wine. Their Valsotillo Gran Reserva 1995 has just got some national and international awards.

Their excellent wines are very good representatives of Ribera del Duero, long lived, robust and with a lot of fruit and body. The winery is also part of the original founders of the Denomination of Origin Ribera del Duero and you can see they believed in what they could do when the DO was founded in 1982 and they were absolutely right.

Their high quality wines of this winery have achieved world recognition both nationaly and internationally. They make crianza, reserva and gran reserva with the Valsotillo label and young wine and rosé with the label Mesoneros de Castilla. The have 1200 American oak barrels. They own 20 hectares of old vines planted with the tempranillo variety called here tinta del país or tinto fino. Its vineyards lie on sunny slopes, ideal for maturing grapes at a height of 800 meters above sea level. All the grapes used for the reds are Tempranillo 100% and are produced in vineyards where we still prune, harvest and generally care for the vines following traditional methods.

Here wine making has been transmitted from one generation to the next in the Arroyo family for more than 400 years. When Ismael´s father, Elpidio Arroyo, won an award in 1949 with special distinction for his wines, he never imagined that 50 years later the wines made by future generations would be praised by all the specialized press.

Wines from this winery:

All the reds are made with 100% tempranillo grape variety
• ValSotillo Crianza, minimum one year in oak and six months in bottle

• ValSotillo Reserva, minimum two years in oak and one year in bottle

• ValSotillo Gran Reserva, only in very good years. Minimum two years in oak and three years in bottle

• Mesoneros de Castilla, Roble. five months in oak, three months in bottle.

• Mesoneros de Castilla, young red wine, no oak.

• Mesoneros de Castilla, rosé. 20% albillo and 80% Tempranillo. No oak.