Cooperativa del Cadalso Granitos Garnacha

Garnacha

Sierra de Gredos, Spain

Just down the street from Comando G is the Bodega Cooperativa Cristo del Humilladero. Founded in 1956 by over 400 local families with vineyards in the hills surrounding Cadalso de los Vidrios, it once received over 6 million kilos of grapes from close to 1000 hectares of vineyards. Since its founding, however, and as Madrid’s population grew, it became more profitable to uproot old vines of Garnacha and Albillo in favor of new suburban houses and country retreats in the mountains of the Sierra de Gredos. Over 80% of the original vineyards near Cadalso have been lost, and more are threatened with continual development.

Faced with the loss of additional vineyards and desiring to reverse this trend, the president of the Cooperativa, Ricardo Moreno, approached his neighbors, Dani Landi and Fernando Garcia. Equally concerned with the loss of their region’s viticultural heritage, Dani and Fer devised a plan to improve the farming and winemaking at the cooperative so that members could make a living from their vineyards rather than selling their land to real estate developers.