Valdepeñas
Ciudad Real · Castilla–La Mancha
DO Valdepeñas30.782inhabitants
1243first mention
500 BCwine documented
A town in the south of Ciudad Real, beside the river Jabalón, the chief town of the DO Valdepeñas. It took shape in the 13th century under the Order of Calatrava, after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, gathering settlers from nearby hamlets around the present church of La Asunción.
First mention: Documents of the Order of Calatrava from 1243 that mention the commander of Valdepeñas.
The legend
6th–3rd century BCThe wine of the Iberians of the Cerro de las Cabezas
Some eight kilometres south of Valdepeñas, on a hill beside the river Jabalón, stood an Iberian town of the Oretani that was inhabited between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC. Its excavations have yielded mills for grapes, olives or cereals and organic remains that the Consejo Regulador and local archaeologists link to winemaking. That is why in Valdepeñas they say their wine is more than 2,500 years old. Much later, local tradition says that the fame of Valdepeñas wine grew when Philip II settled the Court in Madrid in 1561 and the red wine of La Mancha became a regular in Madrid's taverns.
Alive today: Valdepeñas gives its name to the DO Valdepeñas and keeps up the tradition of clay tinajas (large earthenware jars), which can be seen in its Wine Museum. Every September it holds the Festival of the Grape Harvest and Wine, of National Tourist Interest. The largest active bodega is Félix Solís (1952), and the Cerro de las Cabezas is in the process of becoming an archaeological park.
Wineries and their wines
- Los Molinos Airén - Verdejo
- Los Molinos Reserva
- Los Molinos Tempranillo
- Viña Albali Crianza
- Viña Albali Gran Reserva Selección Privada
- Viña Albali Reserva
- Viña Albali Rosado
- Viña Albali Verdejo
Wine towns nearby