Tempos Vega Sicilia creates a new winery in Galicia to make Albariño white wine
10 February – This year the Álvarez family will be celebrating the 40th anniversary since the acquisition of Vega Sicilia. It was April 15, 1982, when David Álvarez officially signed the purchase at Zalacaín, a restaurant believed to be the best and most exclusive at that time in Spain.
Over the following three years, Mr. Jesús Anadón Trullenque continued in his role as Technical Director and General Manager of the winery through to his retirement in 1985, having remained a board member until his death in 1992.
Pablo Álvarez (Bilbao, 1954), who studied Law in Madrid, visited the winery on a weekly basis from 1983 to 1985 when, on account of Anadón’s retirement, he took over the General Management of Vega Sicilia. That same year he appointed Mariano García as the winery’s Technical Director.
Over this 40-year period and under the aegis of the Álvarez family, Vega Sicilia has become a range of unique and world-renowned wines of undeniable quality; moreover, most of the vines planted in the mid-19th century by the founder, Eloy Lecanda, have gradually been recovered. Four new wineries have been created (Alión in 1991, Oremus in 1993, Pintia in 2001 and Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild-Vega Sicilia in 2009), which have significantly driven the group’s international expansion. Back in 1982, Vega Sicilia sold approximately 200,000 bottles and exported to five countries; today, the group is able to produce around 1.5 million bottles per year in all its wineries, sold in over 150 countries. These numbers naturally fluctuate according to the year’s harvest yields and strict quality standards of the group.
In order to achieve this balance, over these last 40 years the Álvarez family has invested over 300 million euros. This financial effort, coupled with years of hard work and infinite patience, has helped create a family winery that is the embodiment of history, tradition, craftsmanship, quality, excellence and innovation. A winemaking group that proudly belongs to the exclusive global elite of luxury and artisanship.
Sales in these 40 years have risen from 1.2 million euros in 1982 to 60 million in 2021. Production has increased from 200,000 bottles in 1982 to 1.2 million in 2021. Profits have multiplied from 400,000 euros in 1982 to 30 million euros today. The group turned over 60 million euros in 2021, with an EBITDA of 37 million. In addition, the group invests 5 million euros a year in the renovation and maintenance of all its wineries.
Deiva winery and vineyards
The company wishes to mark this 40th anniversary with the announcement of its newly created winery, located in the Rías Baixas (Galicia), designed to produce white wines from the Albariño grape, the region’s classic varietal. The winery will be built in Crecente, and 24 hectares of vineyard and land have already been acquired, mainly in Condado de Tea, in the upper section of the Miño river; in Salnés, close to Cambados, O Grove and Sanxenxo; as well as in Crecente itself. The winery and the vineyard together amount to an estimated investment of close to 20 million euros.
The decision to open a new winery in Galicia was made a few years back, in the belief that Albariño is likely one of the best white wine grapes in Spain and that the character of the region of Rías Baixas is singular both in Spain and the world at large. It is a unique and historic region which already boasts excellent producers. This new endeavor enables the family to fulfil its dream of making a great Spanish white wine.
The winery will be making two wines: Deiva, with two years of aging, and Arnela, earmarked to become the group’s premium white with three years’ aging. Deiva´s first harvest is scheduled for 2023, reaching the market in 2025. The goal is to reach a total production of 300,000 bottles between the two wines, depending on the quality and yields.
The region, whose appellation (Denominación de Origen) was created in 1980, has been planting the Albariño varietal, indigenous to the Rias Baixas, for over one thousand years. According to the appellation itself “nobody calls into question that the Cistercian monks that arrived in Galicia via the Camino de Santiago, or else as
part of the entourage of the Burgundy dynasty that travelled to Galicia in the 12th century, were the ones who taught us how to tender and get the most out of the varietals planted here.”
Celebrating its 40th anniversary
As well as the announcement of the new winery, Tempos Vega Sicilia will be marking this anniversary with the publication of a commemorative book on the work done by the Álvarez family over the last 40 years. The book, to be published by La Fábrica, is currently being produced by the author and journalist Alfonso Armada and the photographer Luis de las Alas. It will be presented towards the end of the year.
Alfonso Armada (Vigo, 1958), journalist, is the director of the digital journal fronterad; he worked as the correspondent for Africa and special envoy for El País, as well as correspondent in New York for ABC and the director of its cultural supplement and its master’s degree in Journalism. He has written many books and poetry anthologies, having won the poetry Francisco de Quevedo award for Fracaso de Tánger and the theater prize Ojo crítico of Radio Nacional de España for the text and staging of El alma de los objetos (1998) with the Koyaanisqatsi company. For four years he was president of the Spain section of Reporters Without Borders.
Luis de las Alas (Madrid, 1965) is a photographer who has worked for over 30 years with the most prestigious publications in Spain. He has been a regular contributor to newspapers like El País and El Mundo, to magazines such as Forbes and Esquire and has taken part in the publication of several books on travel and gastronomy. He won the 1990 Photopress Prize for portrait photography, and since 2005 has taught the International Master’s Degree of Contemporary Documentary Photography at the EFTI school in Madrid.
In addition, and also towards the end of the year, the winery plans to sell a total of 100 commemorative cases containing 7 Magnums of the latest vintages of Vega Sicilia Único, Valbuena 5º, Reserva Especial, Alión, Pintia, Macán and Petracs. These 100 special edition cases will be numbered, and one will be auctioned for charity.
International expansion
One of the greatest challenges faced by the Álvarez family upon arrival at Vega Sicilia was to boost its international expansion. And as Pablo Álvarez often remarks: “The saying that good wine needs no bush is wrong. You need to be
known and, if you are not known, they will not buy from you. And unfortunately, Spanish wines in the 80s were not well known beyond our borders. At that time there were hardly any Spanish winemakers in the world; mostly French and Italian. After 40 years I am able to assert that the group has an unprecedented international presence”.
During the 80s, 90s and beginning of the 00s, there was only one person in the group working on exports. One traveled the world and spent four or five months abroad. This was a new quest, going to the end of the world to open markets when travel was not as easy, there were no cell phones or email to change plans on the go: a veritable adventure.
Decades of hard work and an investment that for years has exceeded 600,000 euros per annum in international promotion have meant that today Tempos Vega Sicilia exports 70% of its production to over 150 countries.
Tempos Vega Sicilia’s General Manager, Antonio Menéndez, explains that in 1982 Vega Sicilia exported to five countries, in 2015 to 80 and today it exports to 150. “We currently export 70% of our production”, he explains, “and have direct contact with over 250 distributors all over the world, having strengthened our sales effort and customer service”.
“Our target”, he adds, “is that any customer in the world should be able to find our bottles; for instance, we often send a mere 24 bottles to a small country solely to ensure our presence in that market”. “Furthermore”, he tells us, “We plan well ahead; we have already sent our key distributors our sales forecasts for the next 10 years and are working hard on international communication to ensure our wines become increasingly well-known the world over”.
In the domestic market, Tempos Vega Sicilia boasts 3,700 customers and a waiting list of 2,500 people to get a production allocation. The 2,700 private clients account for 10% of sales in Spain, whereas the rest is sold to food retail stores (60%) and catering (30%).
Prestige
All the investments and effort made by the Álvarez family over the years have turned Tempos Vega Sicilia into a group that is respected and admired all over the world as proven, in the first place, by its increasing customers’ interest, the excellent scores earned year after year by its wines from national and international specialized media, the good write-ups from wine experts, the interest of the world’s most important collectors and auction houses such as Christie´s and Sotheby’s
and belonging to the Primum Familiae Vini, the club of the world’s most important family wineries.
The important tasting of Vega Sicilia that took place in 2015 in Rio de Janeiro is a good example of this. One of the world’s greatest collectors gathered some 40 friends and experts for three days at the Copacabana Palace hotel—which he does every year—to taste, on this occasion, 110 Vega Sicilia wines. 76 vintages of Único (the oldest from 1915) and 34 of Reserva Especial (the oldest sold in 1952). It is surprising that vintages dating back to 1910, 1920 and 1930 are still around, many of them drinkable and very much alive. A luxury that is testament to the interest of collectors and the international market alike in the Spanish winery.
Crucial decisions at Vega Sicilia
Pablo Álvarez was sent by his father to Vega Sicilia in 1983. During his frequent visits he developed a close friendship with Jesús Anadón (General Manager for 36 years) and soon fell in love with the world of wine.
In 1985, in the wake of Anadón’s retirement, Pablo Álvarez was made General Manager of the winery and in less than two years he made the first crucial decision for Vega Sicilia: he implemented a plan to improve and recover most of the vines planted by Eloy Lecanda in the mid-19th century and banned the use of herbicides and chemical fertilizers with a view to achieving organically grown vines; he also carried out a large clonal selection process of all varietals during those years.
In 1986 the group began to acquire the vineyard that would five years later become Alión, in an effort to produce a new style of wine, a modern take on the classicism of Vega Sicilia. Alión started out in 1991 with 31,900 bottles, having reached 300,000 by 1996. Production depends on quality: in 1997 production fell to 190,000 bottles.
Álvarez explains that the wine industry was falling behind quite considerably in the 80s in Spain: “We were the one-eyed guy in the land of the blind. Vega Sicilia was quite advanced for the age, but it was time for renewal and modernization, and we took this to heart. We began by recovering all the vineyards of Vega Sicilia dating back to the 19th century, we carried out the first soil and vine studies, and we now have 24 different clones of Tempranillo and 16 types of soil. The vines are the foundation and Vega Sicilia´s main asset. And of any great wine. This is the key”. The estate of Vega Sicilia (with a total of 1000 hectares of land) only had 80 hectares of vineyard in 1982; today it boasts 210 hectares, thanks to having recovered the land originally planted with vines by the founder of the winery, Eloy Lecanda.
Wineries
In the same year that Alión was inaugurated (1991), Jesús David Álvarez read in the press that Hungary was looking to privatize the wineries of Tokaj, the world’s first wine appellation. He did not think twice. Pablo and Jesús David traveled to Hungary to meet the main authorities in Tokaj and describe the project they wished to develop in the region, perhaps the oldest, and certainly one of the largest in the world. After two years of negotiations, an agreement was reached.
Today the winery has 120 hectares of vineyard, all classified as Grand Cru in 1772, with practically 85% of them having been renewed since 1993, after clonal selection. The definitive winery was opened in 1999.
After many years of investments, hard work and a lot of effort, the project is finally— after 30 years—beginning to show a profit. Time, hard work and patience are fundamental for making great wines. As well as its renowned sweet wines, Oremus decided, for the first time in the history of Tokaj, to make dry white wine for sale. This was back in 2000, and now almost all Tokaj wineries produce dry whites. Mandolás was the first dry white wine from Tokaj in the market.
Pintia (Toro) was inaugurated in 2001, although the land purchases had begun back in 1997. Toro is a historic region that has produced full-bodied wines for many years, but the group believed they could make wines of more elegance, excellence, structure, color and ever-increasing refinement. Pintia is the great wine from Toro.
The same was the case in La Rioja. This is the most important region in Spain for making great wines. Benjamin and Ariane de Rothschild met on several occasions with Pablo Álvarez to materialize the idea they had been harboring for years. They decided to create a winery of which each family would own 50% and began to secretly acquire land for the project. This led to the creation of BR&VS (2013) and its two wines Macán and Macán Clásico, in the north of La Rioja.
The land acquisition process took more than 13 years. Today it boasts 100 hectares of vineyard, all over 30 years of age, having sought low yield clones in use at the time.
La Rioja is a great historic region and the most important in Spain, with many well established wineries; the group’s goal has been to create a great wine in a great region. This is not an easy task: it requires time, hard work, a lot of effort, trial and error and getting it right.
Recognition of a great team
In 1985 Mariano García, who had been working in the winery for some years, was appointed Technical Director of Vega Sicilia, a position he held until 1998, when Javier Ausas López de Castro took over, who worked for the group until 2015, having been vintage 2014, his last. The excellent work carried out by both technical directors during their time at Vega Sicilia is much appreciated.
Since 2015, the technical management is in the hands of Gonzalo Iturriaga, a smart man who is well able to take our wine to its heights in the decades to come.
The 650 hectares of vineyard in all wineries are managed by Enrique Macías, who is painstakingly working to ensure our vineyards reach the highest standards of quality.
Emiliano Yagüe has been our Chief Financial Officer for many years: a professional, hardworking man who cares deeply about the wineries.
András Bacsó, known as “Mr. Tokaj”, has been the soul and Manager of Oremus since its inauguration in 1993 until his retirement last year, having been succeeded by Robert Kindl. Without his knowledge, hard work and love for Tokaj, Oremus and its wines would not have become the great example worldwide of this renowned Hungarian region.
Ignacio Mª de Saralegui is our Sales Manager; young and a recent arrival to the company, he faces exciting challenges ahead.
And at the helm is Antonio Menéndez, General Manager, who joined Tempos Vega Sicilia in 2015 as Sales Manager but has been able to prove his ability to lead this team and the 300 employees they manage who work day after day with enthusiasm, full dedication and great affection for Vega Sicilia.
