This is an archetypal modern estate: the Aragon family have produced wines on their own estate since building their own bodega in 1994. Previously, they were typical growers working their own land and selling fruit to the local co-op. Nowadays, 68 hectares of the Aragon's own vines are maintained with great care: low-cropped, with organic best practice farming and sensitive handling in the purpose-built winery on the property. The vineyards of Cillar de Silos have been accumulated by Amalio Aragon over nearly 50 years. Local Tinto Fino vines are planted on poor sand/clay soils at 860-900 metres in altitude in 'the roof of Ribera del Duero' in small plots scattered through the hills surrounding the villages of Quintana del Pidio and Gumiel de Mercado.
In the northern reach of Ribera del Duero, the extreme continental climate has extremely cold winters and blazing hot summers. A massive diurnal temperature range promotes both the accumulation of grape sugar and the retention of grape acidity. Cillar de Silos wines are beautiful - smart versions of earthy country wines, for drinking and not for show. The wines they have made are so exceptional, so exemplary, that a decade or so later, the co-op asked the Aragons to make wines for them! Nowadays, there is a small range of wines released under the 'el Quintanal' label, whereby Roberto and Oscar advise the Quintana del Pidio co-op's growers on viticultural practice and then make a selection of the resulting fruit into wine for them. The bodega is just a few hundred metres out of Quintana del Pidio on the way towards Gumiel and Burgos. This facility has been re-built, extended and amended every year or two in an ongoing commitment of capital investment.