Ribera del Duero has never been a region we’ve been crazy about but as Spanish wine importers, we always felt like we needed at least something. That said, we were in no rush to pick up any old producer, we were willing to be patient and wait for the right one.

Well that time has come and Félix Callejo is the producer that made the wait worthwhile. We’ve been following them since our inception, when founder Félix Callejo Sr was still at the helm of the winemaking. Needless to say, regardless of having always practiced impeccable organic farming, they were making the type of wines that kept us from wanting to work with Ribera del Duero in the first place. Maybe it was for this reason that they’ve never been imported into the US. Whatever the case, we’re just happy to get to work with them now…

It wasn’t until the second generation of Callejos took over that their wines started to peek our interest. José Félix and Noelia completely revamped their winemaking style, studying their soil type exhaustively and separating their estate by cuvée. Every single wine they make is a true reflection of the place it comes from and their winemaking delicate in style, at least for the region. All spontaneous fermentations of course, lighter extractions, no overripeness, and probably most importantly, no acidification, one of the things that always drove us crazy about this region. Why not just pick a little earlier??? Finally…

Anyway, located at 900m altitude in the historic town of Sotillo de la Ribera, they’re dedicated to representing their town, its soils and its landscape through their wines. The estate is made up of about 50 hectares distributed between 27 vineyards with limestone, gravel (old river beds), sand, and clay in the lower areas, all of which farmed respectfully resulting in beautiful lively wines.