Manuel Manzaneque makes the most of Finca Élez’s mise-en-scène

03/09/2010

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In the early 90s, Manuel Manzaneque Díaz-Hellín, veteran and celebrated theatre director and producer, decided to embark on his very own wine adventure in his homeland, Albacete (Castilla-La Mancha), where he was to choose a very special estate in El Bonillo: Finca Élez. In 2002, this region, together with Dominio de Valdepusa, became one of the first Spanish Pagos to be granted the exclusive status of DO.

All things considered, according to Manuel Manzaneque, wine making is not that different from staging a play. “In both, you have to deal with complicated and laborious projects, which don’t come to an end on the night of the premiere, nor with the debut of your first vintage. In the bodega and in the theatre you always have to be on top form, one performance after another, vintage after vintage, if you hope to win the favour of the public”, explained the businessman, winner of the Spanish National Theatre Award. In fact, Manzaneque, a self-confessed wine lover, took advantage of his travels with the theatre to visit as many bodegas as he could. A strange twist in his personal fate brought him back to his roots and in 1992 he inaugurated his bodega at Finca Élez.

A decade later, when the estate was grated the distinction of ‘Pago’ (Single-Estate, Domaine or Cru) it was his children who took charge of the bodega, Manuel, on the technical side, and his sister, Sofía on the administrative side, both having conscientiously prepared themselves for the job.

Manuel Manzaneque Suárez is qualified in Advanced Agricultural Studies in Viticulture and Oenology from the Lycee Agropolis in Montpellier. He has accumulated abundant viticulture hands-on experience relating to Canopy Management at Dominio de Valdepusa and has also benefited from the wisdom and experience of José Ramón Lissarrague at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and in situ at the Chateau le Bon Pastour in Pomerol, at the orders of Michel Rolland. Sofía Manzaneque Suárez is also highly qualified with a BA in Business Sciences and an MSc in Psychology, and Health and Safety Management. As a result, according to their father, Manuel Manzaneque, “our wines are born of the love and passion generated by the whole family. As a group, the quest of the whole workforce is to satisfy the most sophisticated palates, vintage after vintage”.