LA HISTORIA DE UNA FAMILIA
Haciendo vino desde 1890
The history of Manzanos Wines is the story of a family, their effort, their perseverance and their know-how. The Fernández de Manzanos have been cultivating vineyards and producing wines for more than a century. It was exactly in 1890 when the first generation of the Fernández de Manzanos family established a small winery in Azagra with capacity of 50,000 litres of wine. In the 40’s they inaugurated a new facility which further increased its capacity to 350,000 litres, emphasizing the value of the viticultural tradition of this area. Between the 50’s and 60’s, they consolidated their project with the creation of Bodegas Viña Marichalar, the first one belonging to the appellation Rioja, which exceeds 1.5 million litres in capacity. In the 90s, Víctor Fernández de Manzanos Pastor, from the fourth family generation, joined the family business after studying Chemical Engineering and having obtained a Master’s Degree in Viticulture and Enology by the Technical School of Agronomic Engineering from Madrid Polytechnical University . Víctor is the first member of the family with training in viticulture and enology. Víctor then builds the Winery Marqués de Butrago and decides to perform his life project, the construction of Bodegas Manzanos Azagra.
Nowadays, the public faces of Bodegas Manzanos are those of the brothers Víctor, and David Fernández de Manzanos, as well as Laura Mateo, wife of the former. In 2010, these young entrepreneurs took the reins of the winery to turn Manzanos Wines into a prosperous business, modern and endowed with the latest technologies in the field. A business that has managed to preserve the old flavor of tradition and the legacy received. Many changes have occurred in Manzanos in these six years since Victor, the eldest of the Fernandez de Manzanos brothers, disembarked in the winery after arriving from London, prepared to take the reins of the family business. His father, Víctor Fernández de Manzanos Pastor, author of the project for the current winery, had suddenly just died and this young man, at only twenty years of age, became the company’s engine, assuming the position of CEO. At that time, the company lacked creditworthiness, asphyxiated by the credits for the new facilities and the distribution of product was confined to the local scope with the traditional brand, Viña Marichalar, to which a new mid-high range brand had just been added, Finca Manzanos, gave way to the start of the Bodegas Manzanos Azagra project. The winery had four underground floors for wine elaboration and ageing and a common reception area on the ground floor. By then, there were 12 workers and a weak commercial network, neither national nor international. Nevertheless, today the company’s team is made up of more than 155 people.
Víctor who was studying Finance and Bilingual Business Administration in London, combined distance learning of the end of his studies with his work in the winery. With this picture, the young Fernandez de Manzanos, passionate about business since he was a teenager, is not content to relaunch and take forward the company that had been left by his father, but decides on a major business expansion, materialized in what today is the Manzanos Enterprises group: a project with a division of wines, Manzanos Wines, with a total of ten wineries in several Designations of Origin, and another series of companies in different sectors.
After the incorporation of Víctor comes his wife, Laura Mateo Cuadrado: a sworn translator and interpreter and MBA Executive by Icade, who having also studied in London, assumes, with the firm hand of one who holds a position of responsibility coupled with the initiative and enthusiasm of a youngster, the general management of the winery.
The team is completed in 2014 with the youngest of the Fernández de Manzanos, David, an Industrial Engineer educated at the University of Deusto and VIA University College in Denmark, who heads the production department from his position as Director of Operations.
The work of Victor Fernández de Manzanos has been key in this process of transformation and growth of the family business. Victor has been able to interpret and successfully play the role that destiny threw upon him, on the one hand, as head of the family, with the commitment to keep his family together and, on the other, as a self-made businessman, who must continue the trail left by his father. Its family management, whilst modern and innovative, and the distribution of roles in the direction of business have earned the trust of customers, who see in Manzanos Wines a company with traditional values but open to technological changes. We have come from old and unused wineries with little production capacity, to renovated buildings and renovated facilities and to 950 hectares of vineyards, and all just in the appellation Rioja. Thus, the wineries founded by previous generations continue to operate in Azagra, after the undertaken remodeling. In the spring of 2016 Manzanos Wines acquires Luis Gurpegui Muga and Bodegas Berceo, one of the most emblematic wineries in Rioja Alta. Previously it had already added to the group its first winery with Designation of Origin Of Navarra, Castillo de Enériz.
The adquisition at the beginning of 2018 of the emblematic Rioja Brand Siglo and Vinícola Navarra winery and its brands Las Campanas and Castillo de Olite has been a major milestone in their winemaking history. These purchases have helped Bodegas Manzanos consolidate its positioning in the top 10 of appellation Rioja and the top 3 of appellation Navarra. The work of Víctor Manzanos and his team is evident: sales have grown exponentially since his arrival within the company.
The presence in international markets has also been boosted, reaching more than 60 countries, and national distribution is also increasing. It has been difficult years to get to where we are because, whilst Victor Fernandez de Manzanos senior projected the winery in a time of economic boom, the young Victor has had to face the crisis, which shook the sector and the area in 2011. Perhaps this fact has pushed him into not giving up and his entrepreneurial nature has led him to consolidate a project for the future. In short, this youngsters from the 5th generation of the family, had to work hard. Their commitment and sacrifice during these last six years have been rewarded with the positioning of Manzanos Wines as one of the reference groups in the field of wine in Spain.