Salvador Espinosa Rodríguez

From an early age I grew up in the vineyards and have been involved in the world of bodegas since 2014 when I was elected president of the Nuestra Señora de las Angustias Cooperative. Later, in March 2016, my family acquired Bodegas Diez Mérito and incorporated them with our vineyards to form the new company Bodegas y Viñedos Diez Mérito.

I had the great fortune to live surrounded by the world of wine since I was a boy, and I remember my childhood in our vineyard, Viña El Caribe, continually sneaking along behind our manager Manué. I have always been passionate about this world. Now I have the honour of running one of the most emblematic bodegas in Jerez where two wines are made which could be called oenological treasures of the Sherry region; Fino Imperial VORS and Oloroso Victoria Regina VORS.

Personally I am very proud of them all. This last year we have received important recognition of our wines and among them I am especially proud of our Amontillado Pemartín which won a  Bacchus De Oro, one of only 12 awarded, and also our Oloroso Victoria Regina which won the Best Oloroso trophy at the International Wine Challenge.

There is no doubt that my favourite is Amontillado. They say it is the wine we Jerezanos drink, and I especially love it for its complexity derived from both biological and oxidative ageing.

Any of them since the wines of Jerez are without doubt the most versatile in the world capable of matching any kind of food, even perfectly accompanying dishes which no other wine in the world would be able to match.

It is a unique wine which can only be produced in this corner of Andalucía where the combination of our albariza soils with the Levante and Poniente winds gives us the good fortune to be able to make a wine which is unequalled in the world.

Our bodega has been undergoing commercial expansion since we rescued it from a long period of relative inactivity and it is now giving us great pleasure and satisfaction. The future of Sherry depends on the sale of quality products which are in increasing demand from consumers who are ever more curious and interested in learning about and enjoying our wines.

My earliest memories are of my childhood during the harvest and of helping my father in a tiny bodega which we had in the house with an extremely old Oloroso solera, checking and analysing the wines which were impregnating me with their aromas and also, sometimes, their flavours.