Ramón Castaño Santa is the patriarch at Bodegas Castaño, DO Yecla’s most representative winery, and one of the people who has done more to promote the virtues of the Murcia appellation’s local grape Monastrell. His vocation, his enthusiasm and his projects have not been disappointed. Today the figures endorse his wines’ success, particularly on the foreign market, where he sells over 85 percent of his production.

Ramón Castaño Santa’s grandparents were already winemakers in the town of Yecla, the source of livelihood for most of the town’s inhabitants at the time. As a child, Ramón would trample the grapes and help his grandfather out on the vineyard and in all the chores at the winery.

The years went by and Ramón discovered that his true vocation was to make and sell wine. At first, he would buy grapes to make wine at a bodega he rented from the family. But his ambitions were higher than that and in 1973 he bought his own premises, a 15,000 m plot with a winery built over 500 m2. Today, the facilities cover the entire plot. In 1975 he bought Las Gruesas, his first vineyard.

The 1980s were decisive for the expansion of Bodegas Castaño, when Ramón’s children became involved in the project. The first was Ramón, the eldest, who had studied oenology to spearhead the revolution of Yecla reds. In 1985 they began bottling. Later Juan Pedro joined the company, with his degree in Business Management, to take care of management and administration. Finally, Daniel was put in charge of foreign sales..

“For me it was essential for my children to get as involved as they have with Bodegas Castaño. It gave my work even more meaning,” explains a proud Ramón Castaño Santa.

Thus, boldly planting vines when everyone else was uprooting, bottling when everyone else was selling by bulk, making aged Monastrell when everyone else thought they had lost their head, the Castaño initiated a movement to renew DO Yecla and place it on the map for both national and international wine experts.

“At the time we had trouble selling our wine. Yecla was an unfamiliar appellation and Monstrell was considered to give high-alcohol, oxidative wines that were not fit for ageing,” explains Ramón Castaño Santa, who only became more determined, in the face of all opposition, to prove the quality of his wines to the world. “Today things are the other way around and we have distributors and importers turning up on our doorstep only too happy to be offered a tasting. Monastrell stands with the best varieties, on a par with Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah or Merlot. It’s playing premiere and might even defy expectations and win the league,” he declares with composure and pride.

All this work, which at the time seemed to contradict the flow of things and has turned out to be the right way to go, was backed by an excellent terroir. Bodegas Castaño own three estates in Yecla, which together account for 400 hectares under vines. ‘Las Gruesas’, their first vineyard, and ‘Pozuelo’ are located north of town, in Campo Arriba. They are the largest plots, covering 150 hectares each. The first is on rocky limestone soil, while the second is on chalk loam, at an altitude of 700 – 800 m. ‘Espinal’ is in the south-eastern area of Campo Abajo, at 500 – 600 m above sea level.