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Photo By:: Adil Arora
 Most wineries boast of generations of winemakers and trace the wine related activity going back to centuries and still making mediocre wines. Though Vega Sicilia completed 150 years in 2014, it was bought by David Alvarez, Pablo’s father, 33 years ago in 1982. In a short span they own, besides Vega Sicilia and Alion, Pintia (in Toro), Macan (Joint Venture with Benjamin de Rothschild and Vega Sicilia) in Rioja and Oremus in Tokaj. They are famous for Vega Sicilia Unico which generally undergoes 10 years of maturing whereas Valbuena 5˚, known as the second wine, undergoes 5 years of aging before being released. The combined revenues are €25-40 million depending on the season and the number of bottles produced which in turn depends on the vagaries of nature. During the bad years the group, known as Tempos Vega Sicilia now, cuts down quantity to maintain high quality standards.
Although relations with his father have been strained in the recent years, Pablo is a rock star of wines in Ribera del Duero and has been managing the wine business for the most part. Although his father went to the Supreme Court to regain control of the winery business which has been in the hands of a group under Pablo and some of the siblings, the working of the wineries has been uninterrupted (so far), according to Pablo in an exclusive 90-minute interview where he spoke from the heart. He had no clue what we would be chatting about. Antonio Puente, General Manager Sales and Marketing, was also with him and answered a few questions relating to marketing.
SA: As a child you liked to help your mother in the kitchen, your family wanted you to be a doctor and you went to study law. But you ended up as a wine maker without any formal training in wine making, taking Vega Sicilia to new heights. How did the change evolve?
PA: It’s true I wanted to be a doctor but I went to law school in Madrid instead. But I never practised as a lawyer. My family told me to work in the winery instead. My father had bought the Vega Sicilia Winery in 1982 and expected me to work in the winery as we had no earlier experience in wine making. I used to go to the winery twice a week when in college but in 1985 when I finished my studies, I was made the General Manager and started working full time. I have been very lucky as I am in love with wine and the wine business.
SA: Your father was in the security and cleaning materials business stretching across Spain and Latin America. Why did he buy the wine business with no relevant experience and how did he manage?
PA: That is a service industry where we have 90,000 employees. Vega Sicilia was for sale. It was the most famous Spanish winery but was not being managed well by the previous owners living in Venezuela. My father knew the owners and wanted to help them negotiate with two potential buyers but decided he should buy it and made the highest and successful bid. If it were another winery he would never have bought it. He continued with the existing winemaker till Mariano Garcias took over. He left in 1998 to look after his own wineries (Mauro is a famous winemaker who was in India last year when I had met him at a dinner and tasted his wines, I tell Pablo). Xavier Ausás has been our winemakers since then.
SA: What did you change to make Vega a top-rated profit-making winery?
PA : Vega Sicilia was a famous winery but did not make profit. After we bought it we studied to see what we wanted to make with it and decided to produce the best wines. We had to renovate the vineyard and do a lot of work in the winery even if we had to make heavy investments. Today Vega Siclilia is close to perfect. We are working with the same soil. But we work a lot more and harder in the vineyards.
SA : Alion was next winery you started ?
 PA : In 1985, after I had joined the winery as General Manager, we started to think what to do next. First we thought we would expand the same winery but I told my famly we should start another winery. We debated what quality to produce, including lower end wines too-but we decided to stay with only high quality wine in every winery. Not easy, now that we control 650 hA of vines.
SA : So what is the style of these wines ?
PA : Alion was born in 1991. It was new style of wine and has been a very successful wine all over world. Everyone loves it. 100% Tempranillo- Tinto fino- it is oaked for about a year. We change the same price anywhere and for any quantity. It could be 3 bottles or 10,000-we charge €29 + taxes, which is very reasonable for the quality of wine.
SA : What is the average age of your vines ?
PA : 35 years. But for Valbuena we use grapes from younger vines.
SA : Do you look upon Bordeaux as a benchmark or Burgundy for Vega Sicilia and Valbuena wines ?
PA : A French journalist once described our wines being as powerful as Bordeaux and complex and elegant as Burgundy. Coming from a Frenchman, we take it as a big compliment. Many people tell us that our wines remind them of Burgundy.
SA : Earlier you had 80% Tempranillo and 20% Cabernet and Merlot. Now I believe you have 90% Tempranillo. What made you change the blend ?
PA: We believe that Tempranillo known as Tinto Fino is the best grape variety for Ribera del Duero. We have been getting more and more of this grape into our Vega Sicilia wines. In fact, 3 years ago, we discontinued with Malbec totally as we found it was not easy to grow this variety in Spain. Now we have about 90% or more Tempranillo and balance Cabernet in Unico and Merlot in Valbuena.
SA : Hugh Johnson once compared your wines to the First Growth Chateaux Latour but made from ‘raisined’ grapes. What did he imply ?
PA : I don’t know why he’d say that. He might have tasted from an exceptionally hot vintage. They say our Tempranillo is the best variety when fully mature and worst if immature. Our temperature is cold in August and there is frost many times before harvest ; it’s a difficult region but not very hot.
SA: Unico and Valbuena were introduced in 1915. Anything special to celebrate the centenary ?
PA: No, we are not doing anything special. Interestingly, we used to believe it was introduced in 1915 but someone has recently sent us a picture of a 1909 vintage label. It appears to be genuine and we have no reason to doubt its genuineness. But we are discussing the price we should offer for that bottle.
SA: In terms of aging how long do the Unico and Reserve last?
PA: I believe 30-40 years and maybe 70 years in some vintages. The oldest we opened and tasted was a 1917. It was not in perfect health but it was alive and drinkable, I can say.
SA: How does Robert Parker rate your wines?
PA: Unico 1962 got 100 points but generally we get 93-98 points from him and are quite happy with such high scores. Our wines are not made in the style that Robert Parker likes. They are more elegant and not on-the-face fruit forward, powerful wines. We respect his taste and he respects our style.
SA: What a coincidence that you bought the winery in 1982 and the same year Ribera del Duero got the DO Classification?
 PA: Surprisingly, our winery was not included in the Ribera del Duero region when the winery was bought for some political reasons. Vega Sicilia was marked outside the region. It was later with our efforts that it was included in the DO. With our popularity and worldwide recognition there has now been an explosion of wineries in that area. There were 14 wineries in the region then-today there are 300! Everyone wants a winery and everyone wants to be Vega Sicilia. Ribera wines were fantastic in the 1980s. Today the quality is lower but in future it will be better, I hope.
SA: You have wineries both in Ribera and Toro-both Tempranillio based wines. How do you rate the quality of the regions ?
PA: It is my personal view that Toro will never make great wines. If in Ribera you can produce wines 10/10, Toro can have only 7/10. Toro will never have elegance and complexity of Ribera.
TOKAI
SA: In 2009 I attended a vertical tasting of ten vintages of Oremus Tokaj with you. What motivated you to buy a winery far away from Spain?
PA: It was actually through a newspaper Ad, I think in 1992 when the Hungarian government announced the policy of privatisation of wineries in Tokaj and this iconic winery was available to us. Tokaj is a very prestigious wine region and the wines are very special so we decided to invest there.
SA: What has been your experience so far?
PA: It is an excellent product and brand. We make from 3 Puttonyuos to Essenzia. We also make dry Furmint. But it was not as simple a project as we thought. No doubt it is a very prestigious product but we found out that it had lost a lot of its prestige during the communist years and it will take several years to regain its position. It has also been getting more difficult to sell sweet wines globally. One of our importers in Hong Kong nicely sums it up when he says that Italian wines are selling more and more because new Italian restaurants are opening. But we have hardly any Hungarian cuisine that calls for Tokaj wines. Besides, Tokaj lost several important years away from the market –to recuperate is difficult now. Besides, there are many other wines in the world now.
SA: How often do you visit the winery?
PA: I go 3-4 times a year. But otherwise, we have a full fledged team at the winery. We stay permanently in contact. And Antonio Puente here, joined us as the General Manager Sales and Marketing 4 months ago to handle marketing professionally and looks after Oremus sales as well.
We have introduced professional staff in the winery. We are selling 1.5 million bottles of wine priced from €18 to around €500. We are not a garage (laughs), as you can see! We control more and more of the vineyards quality. We want to maintain the quality.
SA : Pintia was the next winery- in Toro, you started it in 1999 ?
PA : We like to believe you should drink wine and wine should not drink you (he was referring to the price factors, I believe). Keeping this in mind we started buying vineyards in Toro in 1998 and started experimenting with grapes. Our first vintage was in 2001. It has the same variety grape variety but in Toro, wines are more powerful. Alcohol is higher in Toro wines-Pintia has 14.5-15% alcohol but the balance is good. I would call it a good daily drinking wine. We sell it at €18 in the winery but in wine shops it can be €30 and in restaurants for around €45-50. Many people love this wine. We are trying to make it very elegant. We are now selling 2010. We age it in new French oak barriques for 11 months.
SA : Talking of barriques and barrels, I believe you have your own cooperage where you fabricate your own barriques ?
PA : We make barriques only from Amaerican oak at our own cooperage. But French barriques are bought from France only. We buy 3000 of them and sell 3000 of one-pass old barriques every year. At 3000 such barrels a year, we are the biggest customers for some of these cooperages. For American oak barrels, we buy the wood from the US and season if for 3 years before making barrels out of staves. We make about 800 barrels a year. Toasting is decided in summer based on the harvest but we try to be close to medium toast or more.
SA: In 2007, when I met and chatted with you at the first edition of Vinoelite in Valencia- You said it would be a difficult wine fair to sustain. What is the status now?
PA: It’s finished now. Even during the first year, my father was the President of Vinoelite and I compromised and convinced PFV to participate. But next time in 2009 we did not take part. After that, due to recession, it could not sustain.
SA: I met you at the Taj Hotel Mumbai at a tasting of PFV wines when the late Madame Philippine Rothschild was also there. Do you still travel with them?
 PA: We are very happy with the group of 11 where Miguel Torres’ daughter Mireia Torres was just elected as the President for 2015-16. We work with each other often in different countries. One family member has to travel on all the overseas trips to participate in tastings. I like to go every time but when I can’t, my brother represents the family.
SA: I also met you at the World Wine Symposium at Villa d’Este in 2009 but after that I saw you briefly once but didn’t see you last year. Are you coming this year?
PA: Yes, we are one of the five ‘Godfathers’ as my friend Francois Mauss who started the Symposium in 2009, likes to call us. It’s difficult to find time to go every year. I was there in 2013 for a day. I met him in Vinexpo this year. He also wants us to conduct a vertical tasting of Vega Sicilia for the premium tasting. I don’t think I will visit this year but I hope to conduct a vertical tasting at the next edition in November, 2016.
(I made him promise me that he would get me in as his guest for the premium tasting which might otherwise cost upwards of €1000 (last year the DRC vertical tasting was priced at €2000 and many people were disappointed as all the 70 seats were sold out).
Family Problems
SA : It’s an open secret that you have had major problems in the family-with your father David Alvarez wanting to control the wine group also and has one of your four brothers and a sister on his side. In fact, he had gone to the Supreme Court to get the power back. What was the case and what has happened in that matter?
PA : Basically, there have been two family owned groups - the original company which was and still is in the security and industrial cleaning business controlled by my father with 51% share and the rest of us have 49%. The other group (Tempos Vega Sicilia) is a group owning wine business including Bodega Vega Sicilia. This is the root of the problems and discord. Out of the 7 siblings 5 of us are together and own about 70% shares. We had earlier given him a Power of Attorney for certain situations. Since he wanted to totally control the business, we revoked the POA. He went to the court saying this was irrevocable while we said it was revocable. The court has given its decision about a month ago. The result is quite complicated. In summary, he has gotten the Attorney but cannot get the power. (It appears a bit confusing but I did not press it further as it is their personal family matter-the fact remains that the 60-year old Pablo is the face of the company as the CEO with his sister Marta who is the President, while his elder brother and a sister are with his father).
SA : What is the root cause of the trouble ? I hear that his 3rd marriage is the cause and that you siblings have professional jealousies?
PA : That is totally false. It has nothing to do with his marriage. And all of us siblings are quite social with each other. The problem is he wants to control the entire group with iron hands. At 88 years, I just don’t think he or anyone can be physically or mentally capable of handling a group of this vast size. We have worked very hard to build the wine empire and cannot let it go down.
Getting a bit emotional, Pedro says : Most fathers like to see their sons and daughters go ahead and achieve more than what they did in life. I hope and wish my sons who are in their twenties and are studying with at least one of them joining the wine business, do a 100 times better than me and can take over when I retire. But our father wants to compete with us even at this age. I am the CEO of the winery group. We offered him to become the Chairman. But he wants it all!
 But the good news is that our problem does not affect our business which is being run as professionally as possible. We are two groups-we are managing the winery business.
SA : I have been observing Spanish social system from the Torres’ succession plans. What is the status of women in Spain? I see one of your sisters is on your side-the second is in your father’s side
PA : You are suggesting that women do not get equal importance in the family system in Spain. That’s not true any more though the discrimination existed in the previous generations.
SA : There are succession specialists in the US who help plan the succession. Do you think your father could have used the services and avoided the current conflicts?
PA : It might have helped if our father were a reasonable man. He is obstinate and wants to own and control everything. You have to remember that our share came from my mother’s shares.
India
SA: Is this your second visit to India? What is your experience about India?
PA: This is the third visit and I am very happy to be here and learn about the market in detail from people like you. My impression is that nobody wants to work in India because of your taxes and procedure. But they know that India is a big consumer and they want to work for the future. Torres is a perfect example. He has worked in the world for distribution for many years. We want to work with the Indian market. Some say that culture here is more important than China. I know when a country starts with wine it normally starts with Bordeaux. After Burgundy and Rhone come Spain and Italy. I know India has space for quality Spanish wines.
SA: What do you think of Tempranillo for Indian wines? I feel it is very palatable for Indian drinkers?
PA: I don’t know because I have no idea about Indian soil and climate. Properly matured, it is an excellent grape though but if the grapes are not ripened phenolically, it can be very green.
SA: Have you tasted Indian Tempranillo- from Charosa Reserve and Chene from Grover Zampa.
PA: No, but I would love to try it. (I recommend to Sonal Holland later to try to arrange a tasting-I hope he would have the opportunity in Mumbai after Delhi to give the feedback)
SA: What do you think of Valbuena as the perfect wine for India-similar to Unico. With 5 years of aging it is aged longer than First growths; don’t you think Valbuena is a better value for money for the Indian market?
PA : Obviously people consider it our second wine. But it is not second wine like they categorize in Bordeaux. It is a fantastic wine. Right now we are using younger vines but in future it will keep on getting better and better. It’s a very good value for the Indian consumer. Its easier to understand and much cheaper. I recommend it very highly because of its very good quality and value for money feature.
SA: What are your future plans? You still don’t make good white wines.
PA: First we are consolidating. But we are also looking to add one more winery. We are looking at Galicia. We want to create one more in Spain but I don’t like Priorat. Outside Spain, we are also looking at France-Bordeaux to be more precise-since we want good quality wines in our portfolio.
 SA: How about in Navarra? I believe you are a Basque.
PA: I was born in Bilbao and yes we are a Basque family. But in the 1980s when there was too much of terrorist attacks- we decided to move away and never went back though we still have a house there. So no, we don’t have any plans for Basque region.
SA: You are 60 years old? Though very young who is there from your family to take on the mantle when you retire eventually?
PA: I have two sons-both in their twenties. One is in the university while the other wants to do MBA. One of them likes so much the business. He must prepare for the business and must love it. At the end they must be happy. It is important they love and like the job.
SA : One last question. How often are you still asked the question-‘where are you located in Sicily ‘?
PA : (laughs) not much anymore, though earlier they used to ask. Now most people know we are a Spanish winery and that Vega Sicilia is located in Ribera del Duero and it produces some of the best red wines in Spain
Subhash Arora
For an earlier related article please visit: ITC Hotels brings Vega Sicilia's Pablo Alvarez to India
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