“I had a feeling that the environment would be the place to invest in the future so I decided to investigate the world of organic viticulture in-depth; by treating the environment in a respectful way, it could provide us with top quality grapes and wines at the same time, and that’s just what happened. Which puts us at the forefront of research and development in new viticulture management techniques in Andalusia and Spain”, the Bodegas Robles’ oenologist and director declares.

As a result, in the year 2000 the very first vintage of organic fortified wines in the world was marketed, with 6,000 bottles of Pale Cream, under the brand-name ‘Piedra Luenga’, in honour of a natural beauty spot located in Montilla that used to be an iron mine in Roman times.

From 2001 onwards, Bodegas Robles completely immersed itself in the area of investigation and together with the Department of Soil Science at the University of Córdoba and the Córdoba County Council, decided to carry out the very first vineyard crop cover management project in southern Spain. “With this project we were able to produce grapes totally free from any kind of external input alien to the immediate environment for the first time ever, in other words, we were able to make a crop cover selected from a variety of grasses able to naturally produce a nitrogen and phosphorus fixation. This grass variety, during the flowering period, has also allowed us to create a ‘food chain’ so complete that we no longer need insecticides and has, from that moment onwards, become an indispensable ally. We no longer use weed-killers and have started to employ no-till management practice between the vineyard rows”. Francisco José insists that these actions allow for a natural yeast selection, giving the fermentation process greater organoleptic properties than conventional vineyards.

Furthermore, he states with pride that this Integrated Organic Winery Project was the winner of the Best Organic Company in Spain prize in 2006, an accolade awarded by the Biodiversity Foundation and the Ministry of the Environment. This honour, together with the various awards obtained abroad, have helped to make Bodegas Robles’ organic wine project possible and one of the most important in Spain.