The Jesús del Perdón-Bodegas Yuntero Cooperative has completed the 2018 harvest with a record production in its 64 years of history, with the collection, grinding and production of 146 million kilos of grapes. The winery is consolidated as the second largest producing cooperative in Spain.
Bodegas Yuntero began the harvest on August 22 with the collection of grapes that ripen earlier, such as the Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Moscatel varieties. And this campaign concluded last Friday, October 26, with the Airén variety and the red Cabernet and Petit Verdot grapes. The campaign has lasted 64 days and has had peak days of grape entry of 4,600,000 kilos.
This large production allows the winery to produce a wide range of varieties: white grapes, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Moscatel, Viognier, Pedro Ximenez, Parellada, Verdejo, Macabeo and Airén; and reds, Tempranillo, Garnacha, Garnacha Tintorera, Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, Petit Verdot, Malvec, Monastrel and Graciano. In addition to continuing to produce a wide variety of grapes from organic farming, this winery was a pioneer in Castilla-La Mancha in 1992 in the production of wines from this source.
One of the strategic differences of the Jesús del Perdón-Bodegas Yuntero Cooperative is the commitment in recent years to diversify its production products, The white Airén grape represents only 46% of the total production, 42% corresponds to varietal grapes and 12% to organic grapes.
Bodegas Yuntero, dimension and quality
The objective of the Bodegas Yuntero Cooperative is marked by both size, to achieve the optimization of resources, and quality. Quantity does not mean a decrease in quality, but rather the availability of a wide range of varieties and selection of grapes to obtain multiple wines, oriented to the taste of each market, as well as to select the best vineyards and grapes that will be destined for bottling.
To obtain maximum quality, the evaluation of the raw material is essential. For yet another campaign, all the grapes have been classified at the entrance to the winery into 1st, 2nd and 3rd categories, depending on previously established parameters (Graduation, Acidity, Potassium, Gluconic, Fermentative Activity). Depending on the qualities of the grapes, these have been produced independently to clearly obtain the traceability of the products and their remuneration, depending on the quality provided by each cooperative member.
Investment of 25 million euros in the last six years
To obtain the appropriate size and quality, the Cooperative has made significant investments in all its assets. In the current campaign up to four million euros, and in the last 6 years 25 million. In this way, The winery has increased its capacity to 117 million liters and improved all production processes from the reception of the grapes, pressing, cold facilities with 8 million frigories, to achieve rigorously controlled fermentations. Likewise, the investments have allowed the construction of two air-conditioned warehouses to store tanks with a capacity of 12 million liters.
In the project phase, the winery has the construction of a 4,500 square meter warehouse to locate the bottling lines, as well as a warehouse to keep the finished products in optimal air conditioning conditions.
Once the harvest is over, Bodegas Yuntero is already beginning to supply the different wines produced to more than 17 countries from all over the world, as well as preparing the wide range of bottled wines for the 2018 vintage, which are scheduled to go on the market next month under its different brands: EPILOGO (varietal grapes); YUNTERO (D.O. La Mancha); LAZARILLO (Wine from the Land of Castilla); MUNDO DE YUNTERO (Organic) and POÉTICA (Low alcohol carbonated wine).
