La Mancha organic wines

La Mancha, with around 200,000 hectares, is the world's largest contiguous wine-growing region the adventures of Don Quixote and the white windmills scattered throughout the country became famous.

As a wine producer, with a few exceptions, it is still considered the location of huge cooperatives with several thousand hectares of vineyards.

and as a supplier of cheap mass-produced wines who also offer organic wines from La Mancha, which are produced by  German importers are either sold in the original bottling, or arrive here in a tanker, filled into bottles and offered at an overpriced price as their own brand without any indication of origin.

Some smaller, family-run wineries offer an alternative that produce higher quality organic wine Produce, fill your own bottles and offer them at fair prices.

The name La Mancha may go back to the Arabic "manxa", dry land, or as linguists believe, to  “la más ancha”, the furthest. Be that as it may, both terms are applicable.

Castile La Mancha consists of four provinces namely Toledo, Cuenca, Albacete and  Ciudad Real. The wine-growing areas are located at an average altitude of 700 m, with a few small valleys or hills. The climate is archetypically continental with 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, very cold winter temperatures of up to minus 15 ° C, which almost immediately transition into summer with up to 45 ° C.

The mountains surrounding La Mancha prevent the penetration of moist air masses from the Mediterranean, resulting in scanty rainfall of only 300-400 mm/year leads. The reddish-brown soils are mostly made of red clay, although there are also areas with a high limestone content that would actually be particularly suitable for producing good organic wines if they were given the necessary care in the vineyards.

Under these climates, only viticulture and agriculture are of greater economic importance. In addition, the breeding and keeping of Manchego sheep plays a subordinate role, with the Manchego cheese produced being known worldwide with its typical character, its firm consistency, the buttery texture and its white to ivory-like color, which varies depending on its age from 2 months up to 2 years.

By the way, unemployment in the La Mancha region is one of the highest in Spain. It also goes back to the automation of the cooperatives' huge vineyard fields, which not only leads to the exodus of young people who no longer see any prospects here, but also leads to depopulation.

The history of a Cooperativa could be an explanation for this:

• 1954 Founding of Cooperativa with 102 winegrowers with a grape production of  6,000,000 kg/year, approx. 4,500,000 liters of wine.
• 1960 in this decade, additional vineyards were acquired and the Cooperativa San Isidro Cooperative was taken over.
• 1990 Takeover of Cooperativa El Porvenir. In 1992, the first organic wine from Castilla la Mancha was produced under the brand Mundo de Yuntero.
• 2000 in this decade Takeover of  Cooperativa El Progreso.
• 2010 The exponential growth of Cooperativa Jesus del Perdon continues and reaches the capacity of 105 million liters of wine.
• A success story for Cooperativa, which enables winegrowers to enjoy a standard of living at the lowest level.

Alternatives to wines from cooperatives and own brands are offered by small, handcrafted family wineries, some of which are Vino de Pago producers such as Pago Finca Èlez, which produces wonderful organic wines.