Winemaker: Pete Irvine
Where: Cebreros, Sierra de Gredos, Spain
Size: 4 ha
Main Varieties: Grenache
Viticulture: Regenerative and old bush vine
Quick note: PJ is a trained Geologist so it’s truly a pleasure to talk rocks with him! Whole bunch, gentle extraction in winemaking
Just to the west of Madrid, beautiful but rough granite country rises into a spectacular series of mountain ranges, with a history of over 750 years of vine cultivation. However, Cebreros or Sierra de Gredos is one of Spain’s most recent additions to receive Denomination of Protected Origin (DOP). So while the region has a rich wine producing past, it has only been in the last few years where modern thinking has brought it back into the spotlight.
The spotlight for us is highlighting a tall New Zealand geologist, Pete Irvine! We’ve really been interested in Gredos for a while, so getting to visit and work with a new young winemaker in this region was an opportunity we couldn’t say no to. In fact, there was nearly no one better to visit with, as Pete or PJ is an absolute fountain of rock information!
Originally trained as a Geologist in his homeland New Zealand, PJ went over to the wine industry in 2016 out of a curiosity stemming from the intrinsic connection the grape vine has with the land. He further completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Wine Science at Auckland on Waiheke Island that year and then worked harvests all over the world for several years in places like Central Otago, Nelson, Northern Rhone, San Antonio Valley Chile, Rioja and McLarenvale before settling in Spain after the 2022 harvest in Rioja.
His fascination with Cebreros starts with his vineyards. The two vineyards he secured in 2022 for his cuvée ‘Giant’s Playground’ are located near the villages of Cebreros (850m elevation) and El Barraco (960m elevation), both with 70-80 year-old Garnacha bush vines planted on sandy granite soils, dry farmed, no till, and with no herbicides, pesticides or artificial fertilisers. In 2024/2025 PJ started working with Garnacha vineyards in the schist terroir in the Reventon and Gargantilla valleys, above the village Cebreros, where the cuvée Foliation comes from.
Overall, he is applying some biodynamic treatments but the mediterranean climate with a continental influence means a generally dry green season with no use for sulphur or copper. He is strictly using the Guyot-Poussard pruning method to respect sap flow and no hedging during the season. His process during harvest is relatively simple; hand harvest, whole bunch fermentation, light crush, wild yeast, zero additions, no temperature control. Extraction is very light with no pumps, thereafter pressed in a vertical press to large variable capacity (VC) fibreglass tank followed by 9-12 months of elevage before a small addition of SO2 around bottling. Interestingly he chose to stop using barrels for elevage in 2024 to work more reductively and search for more precision, purity and terroir expression.
A lot of information, as Gredos, like previously mentioned above, is a rediscovered wine hot spot but yet relatively unknown. We have been really captivated by both the landscape and the wines, the story and the people growing there. PJ himself is a delightful man, full of knowledge and humour, and we are really looking forward to sharing his wines with Denmark.
