Calzadilla’s location is about 1.5 hours southeast of Madrid, and about an hour from Cuenca. It is isolated and calm. There is simply a special nuance here, you can feel it.  Arriving and looking across the street to see the Cerro Parajá at 3,287’ and the plots descending from that point is nothing less than stunning. The vineyard is located in the Rio Mayor Valley, where frequent fogs and winds protect the vineyard from dangerous spring frosts and bring freshness to summer nights. Calzadilla is named after a small Roman road that was very near the vineyard. The wine Opta was named after the Roman settlement of the same name nearby.

Celia and Francisco (Paco) Uribes Madero began their qualitative effort to produce elegant wines in 1979, with the planting of their first Garnacha plot. Paco was an architect in Madrid, but wanted to make great wines from a new place, a location not on any wine map. The vineyards were virgin land. No crops had ever been grown there. After Garnacha, they next planted Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon, and then later Syrah. Garnacha Blanca was added in the mid 2000’s.

Without much knowledge of viticulture, they had to learn from books. When the project took on dimensions that could no longer be mastered by amateur winemakers, Celia sold the family’s pharmacy, and trained as an oenologist.

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