Spain · Jumilla

Celler del Roure

Valencia estate recovering pre-phylloxera indigenous varieties and ageing selected wines in buried earthenware tinajas.

The producer

Celler del Roure is a wine estate in Moixent, in the Clariano area of southwestern Valencia, built by a family that had never made wine. Pablo Calatayud trained as an agronomist and launched the project with his father in the mid-to-late 1990s; the family's business had been furniture. They started with the varieties then commanding prices across Valencia: Tempranillo, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon. Those wines are still in production. The project the estate is known for is something else: the recovery of indigenous Valencian grapes that disappeared after phylloxera, fermented and aged in earthenware tinajas buried underground.

The change began when Pablo met a local grower using Mandó vines for simple home wine, a variety nobody was bottling commercially. In 2006 the family went looking for around ten additional hectares and came home with forty: a full estate in Moixent that included an ancient underground cellar holding roughly 100 earthenware tinajas. Those jars, lined with tartaric acid and buried in the earth, now define the estate's most serious wines. Safrà, a blend of Mandó and Arcos fermented partly as whole clusters and aged six months underground in a 2,800-litre amphora, is the clearest account of what the project has become.

Known for

Mandó and indigenous Valencian varieties aged in buried earthenware tinajas.

Notable facts

The story

The Search That Went Somewhere Larger

In 2006 Pablo Calatayud set out to find roughly ten additional hectares of vineyard land around Moixent. What he found instead was a 40-hectare estate. The property came with vines already in the ground and, beneath a stone building at the centre of it, an underground cellar holding roughly 100 earthenware tinajas of varying sizes, ancient jars that had been sitting in the earth for generations. The family bought the whole estate. The tinajas were cleaned, the tartaric-acid lining restored, and within a few years the jars were back in use. The amphora wines that now define Celler del Roure exist because a search for ten hectares led somewhere much larger.

From the atlas

Celler del Roure

At A Glance

The Producer

Celler del Roure is a wine estate in Moixent, a town in the Clariano area of southwestern Valencia, built by a family that had never made wine. Pablo Calatayud trained as an agronomist and launched the project with his father in the mid-to-late 1990s; the family's business had been furniture. They started with the grapes then fashionable across Valencia: Tempranillo, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon. Those varieties are still in production. But the project they are known for is something else: the recovery of indigenous Valencian grapes that disappeared after phylloxera, fermented and aged in earthenware tinajas buried underground.

The estate now owns 60 hectares of vineyards and rents just over 25 more, all farmed organically. Organic certification came in 2017. It does not appear on the labels.

Place

Moixent sits in the southwestern corner of Valencia province, in a zone called Clariano. The vineyards spread across four parcels: some on the northern flank of the Serra Grossa, a limestone ridge that blocks the warmest southern air, and others in the Alforins-Alcusses valley below. Average altitude across the holdings is 550 metres. That elevation matters for acidity and night-time cooling in a region where summer heat can strip freshness from red grapes.

The soils are sand, clay and limestone, very poor in organic matter. Vines on lean soils produce smaller crops with more concentrated fruit. For indigenous varieties that already tend toward lower yields, that combination pushes the wine toward depth rather than volume.

Soil And Site

The Serra Grossa parcels face north, which limits direct sun exposure and extends the ripening window. The valley fincas sit lower, warmer and more sheltered. Between the two exposures the estate can pick grapes at different moments and bring contrasting material to the cellar. Sandy loam and limestone fragments dominate the topsoil; below that the limestone shelf holds moisture through dry summers. Mandó, a low-yielding variety with thin skins, roots well in these soils and produces wines with colour and grip without heavy extraction.

Story

The furniture business gave the Calatayuds money but no winemaking instinct. Pablo studied agronomy, which gave him soil science and viticulture but not a regional wine tradition to inherit. When the family started planting in the late 1990s, they chose Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon because those were the varieties commanding prices in Valencia at the time. The wines sold.

The change came when Pablo met a local grower who was using Mandó vines for simple home wine, a variety nobody was bottling commercially. Mandó had survived phylloxera on scattered parcels but had never recovered its place in Valencian viticulture. Pablo began sourcing it and, eventually, replanting. Then in 2006 the family went looking for around ten more hectares and came home with forty: a full estate in Moixent that included an ancient underground cellar holding roughly 100 earthenware tinajas. The jars changed what the project could become. The cellar architecture, preserved in the ground, matched the indigenous grapes the estate was learning to grow. Since 2015 the old stone vats in that same cellar have been brought back into use alongside the tinajas.

Vineyards And Cellar

All 85 or so hectares are farmed organically. Grapes are harvested by hand. Most wines ferment in stainless steel tanks with natural yeasts, giving clean, fruit-forward extraction without oak or lees influence.

For the estate's most significant wines, fermentation shifts to the old stone vats and selected lots move after fermentation into buried tinajas. The jars are sealed with tartaric acid rather than beeswax or resin, which keeps the vessel inert and lets the wine develop without picking up reductive character. Burial in the earth holds temperature steady through the year, a natural form of temperature control that slows maturation and preserves freshness. The Safrà bottling uses a 2,800-litre jar for six months. No new oak enters the wine at any point.

For Safrà, part of the Mandó and Arcos crop is destemmed before fermentation; the remainder ferments as whole clusters. That choice adds tannin and perfume from the stems rather than only from the grape skins, giving the wine more aromatic lift and a longer, drier finish.

Wines

The range divides between international-variety wines produced at volume and a smaller group of indigenous-variety wines that carry the estate's core argument.

The volume tier uses Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from the estate's larger holdings. These ferment in stainless steel and are made for early drinking: fresh, rounded reds with accessible tannin and moderate body.

The indigenous tier centres on Mandó, a red grape with deep colour, firm tannin and a lean fruit profile that runs toward dried cherry and dark plum rather than juicy berry. Arcos, the variety blended with Mandó in Safrà, contributes aromatic complexity and a lighter colour. Together they make a wine that is more mineral than the Tempranillo-based bottles, with a longer acid line and tighter grip on the finish.

Safrà sits at the top of the range. The 2024 vintage combines Mandó and Arcos, part destemmed and part whole-cluster, with spontaneous fermentation and six months of underground ageing in a 2,800-litre earthenware jar. Safrà belongs to the range of ancient wines made in the old subterranean cellar.

In The Glass

Safrà opens with dark cherry, dried fig and a faint earthy mineral note that comes from the amphora ageing rather than from soil directly. The whole-cluster component adds a herbal lift, a slight greenness that keeps the wine from reading as simply ripe. In the mouth the tannins are present and dry but not coarse; they build across the mid-palate and finish long with a chalky persistence. Acidity is moderate but clear, enough to keep the wine alive through a full meal. There is no oak sweetness, no vanilla or smoke. What remains on the finish is the grape, the place and the jar.

Across the broader range, the stainless-steel wines are lighter, more direct and more immediately generous. They work well at the table without requiring attention. The indigenous-variety tier is slower to give itself up and rewards a second glass more than the first.

A Bottle To Understand It

Safrà is the right first bottle. It is a blend of Mandó and Arcos, partly whole-cluster-fermented with natural yeasts, aged for six months in a buried 2,800-litre earthenware tinaja. The wine opens with dark cherry, dried fig and an earthy mineral note, while dry tannins build across the middle of the palate and finish with chalky persistence. No oak. No technical smoothing. It gives a clear account of what indigenous Valencian varieties taste like when handled with care: lean, aromatic, firm and long. Buy the 2024.

Anecdote

In 2006 Pablo Calatayud set out to find roughly ten additional hectares of vineyard land around Moixent. What he found instead was a 40-hectare estate. The property came with vines already in the ground and, beneath a stone building at the centre of it, an underground cellar holding roughly 100 earthenware tinajas of varying sizes, ancient jars that had been sitting in the earth for generations. The family bought the whole estate. The tinajas were cleaned, the tartaric-acid lining restored, and within a few years the jars were back in use. The amphora wines that now define Celler del Roure exist because a search for ten hectares led somewhere much larger.

Final Word

Celler del Roure is a Valencia estate making two kinds of wine. One is a volume range built on international varieties, well made and honest. The other is a recovery project: Mandó and Arcos, grown on limestone and sand at 550 metres, fermented with wild yeasts and aged in buried earthenware jars that the family found under a farmhouse in 2006. The second range is the reason to seek the estate out. Safrà is the bottle to start with.

Sources

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