Villachica is located opposite the river Duero, in the municipality of Toro, Zamora province, center of the Certificate of Origin Toro.
The name of our brand Villachica comes from meadows of Villachica, the spot where the bodega is situated, also called Pago de san Andrés (single vineyard of san Andrés). The name refers to Luis Villachica, the first owner, who bought it during the expropriation of Mendizábal in the XIX century.
Although we elaborate wine and we arrived in Toro many years after the historical events that gave birth to our wine brand, we wanted to keep to origin of the place name.
VILLACHICA ORIGIN
What is now a bodega surrounded by vineyards in front of the Duero river, was time ago a big property which belonged to Victoriana de Villachica, extramarital Luis’ daughter, an upper-class person of that time and heir of the Marquisate of Villachica. She had a palace built in the property, and although it doesn’t exist anymore, she used to spend long periods there during the year. After she passed away, and as she hadn’t had children, the estate was given to Zamora Diocese, and the palace became the bishop’s summer residence for a long time.
The propriety was on sale in 1980. The diocese decided to put on sale and it was bought by Angel San Miguel de Pablos with the idea of transforming it into a bodega. Ten years later he managed to elaborate his first wine. That is how the very beginning of the new century started with Villachica, the first vintage year for the bodega. This was a turn in the history Pago de San Andrés.
ELABORATION
We pick by hand, in boxes of 18 kilos, and only Tinta de Toro native grapes in order for them to get to the bodega in the best possible conditions. In addition, and by means of selection on a table, we control the sanitary and maturity of the grape throwing away the bunches that don’t meet our minimum quality standards.
The methods of elaboration are respectful to the grape as well as its origin with the minimum intervention in the bodega. We separate the different plots in stainless steel stores which we subsequently elaborate to distinguish the character that marks the type of soils and the ages of vineyard. We always keep this philosophy in mind during the process of vintage in barrel. We work with French, Central European, American and Spanish oak. We combine them in order to refine and look for the maximum expression of our wine.
OUR VINEYARDS
In the Toro region we have old vineyards of extraordinary quality. We also keep the tradition of not getting too involved in the vineyards.
The commitment of Villachica is to winegrowers and the land. We work hand in hand with nine local winegrowers and we look after 60 hectares of vineyard of between 15 to 90 years of age approximately. All the vineyards are planted in goblet trained.
RAISING AREAS
All our wine comes from vineyards situated in four boundaries of the region:
- Single vineyards La Castilla, Bardales, Matalobas, Lebratinos and Vallenogal in the boundary of Toro.
- Single vineyards Teso de la Monja in Villabuena del Puente.
- Single vineyards of Teso de la Cruz and Valdebuey in the boundary of Valdefinjas.
- Single vineyards of La Pedrera in the boundary of Morales de Toro.
CHARACTERISTICS
The vineyards are between 690-720 meters high where two types of soils prevail. One has superficial sand layers which allows a good drainage system, and with other deeper layers rich in clay, which makes the water retention easier and so the vegetation of the plant. The layers of the other type of soil are rockier, with “cascajos”, river stones, and deep layers of clay.
The way the vineyards are treated is based on a minimum intervention. The grapevines are very well adapted to the land. The outputs as well as the productions per hectares are rather stable, between 2,000 and 5,500 kg/ha.
