The environment
La Mancha is a vast expanse of land that has a flat terrain, without great heights and with beautiful red Miocene sediments of limestone structure. Their temperatures are extreme due to its continental climate, ranging from the winter cold of -15 º to 45 º from the stifling summer. Dryness is one of its most distinct characteristics, since its micro-climate prevents the entry of moist winds, presenting a low rainfall (300 to 400 mm per year), thus La Mancha is primarily a dry land farming, although recent restructuring plans has expanded the number of drip irrigation farms. Moreover, our country has 3,000 hours of sunshine a year to sear their grapes; hence we offer the best fruit.
The wine tradition
the wine culture has always been a tradition for the people of these lands, in fact the Wine Culture is based on many of the customs, festivals and literature from the village of La Mancha.
We must not forget the allusions that make the wine from La Mancha’s great writers of the Golden Age Miguel de Cervantes masterpiece “Don Quixote”, Cervantes makes several references to wine as one that says, “both praised the wine that put him in the clouds, but dare not leave much in them so that they won’t get ruined”
Although the documented origins of vineyards in La Mancha dated XII-XIII centuries after it repopulated in the times of Reconquista, some would argue that the vines from La Mancha date back to the Roman times. However, the cultivation of vineyards in La Mancha reaches its maximum expansion since 1940, due to the implementation of many wine producers throughout the region. The wine is also the main economic activity of the municipalities of the Designation of Origin- DO
La Mancha in extension
La Mancha, with many acres of vineyards that fill up the fields, is the largest wine region in the world. It is the largest natural region of Spain, occupying an area of 30,700 square kilometers, representing half of the four provinces including (Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca and Toledo). Production Standards from Designation of origin “La Mancha” gives room for a total of 182 municipalities: 12 in Albacete province, 58 in Ciudad Real, 66 in Cuenca and 46 in Toledo.
It brings together about 20,000 and close to 280 growers and wineries, figures that make it one of the main economic engines of the region. Of the companies that it comprises, approximately 200 market bottled wine, more than 120 sales are made outside our country and about 130 produce wines with barrel aging. Our region has a long tradition of wine, which added to the combination of different natural features; produces an excellent grape to give life to a great wine, with different peculiar shades. You could say that La Mancha is the ideal area for growing grapes, acquiring a fruit of extraordinary quality, maturity and health.
As a result, the wines from La Mancha, are currently among one of the finest and most prestigious in the world.