José Antonio Merayo is currently managing director for bodega Val de Vid, under DO Rueda. But even before, when his original line of work took him to the realms of the financial world via the Cajas de Ahorro (Savings Banks), he never lost his love of the land or the vineyard, and from 1996 onwards he has been making 100 percent Verdejo wines in Rueda. His major achievement to date is the sale of between 80 and 85 percent of his wine on foreign markets.

José Antonio Merayo was born in 1953 in a village called Albares de la Ribera, in the region of Bierzo. A village he left behind at a very early age but to which he still feels strongly attached. His love of the vineyard and of the land in general was inherited from his father, who worked a small piece of land in his native Bierzo making wine for home consumption.

While working for the Caja de Ahorros, José Antonio was posted to Valladolid and has organised his life from there since then. However, his obsession did not forsake him. “My profession took me to a land where very good wines are made and I always had the idea buzzing round my head, that one day I would have a piece of land big enough to have a really good vineyard and that time would become a safety valve to burn off other energies”, Val de Vid’s managing director explained.

In order to achieve his goal, he first looked at estates around the Ribera del Duero area and then around Rueda. That was how, roughly at the beginning of 1989, the opportunity arose to buy three plots with a total surface area of 20 hectares in the municipality of La Seca, the most important vineyard plantation area under DO Rueda. “I didn’t have to think twice about it: I planted Verdejo, fulfilling my dream and involving myself in a six-year adventure that would later become even more complicated after my friend Alejandro Bolado suggested making wine”, Merayo stated. As a result, and with the support from the owner of the well-known bodega ‘Valtravieso’ under DO Ribera del Duero, he launched his first wine on the market, made from the 1996 vintage. Since 2004 Val de Vid manages its own facilities where it makes its wines, ‘Condesa de Eylo’ and ‘Val de Vid’, which, before that date, used to be made at another bodega.