Collection: El Progreso

El Progreso is the oldest wine cooperative in uninterrupted activity in Spain, established in 1917. At that time, it was organised as a sort of trade union that stood up for the rights of the hard-working but misunderstood winegrower class - while simultaneously trying to commercialise its products in a dignified way. The number of members increased continuously and they also made greater amounts of better wines. Fifty years after it was first established, thus in 1967, El Progreso merged with two important agricultural cooperatives to become one of the largest cooperative businesses of the time. After about a century of striving to do ever better, El Progreso has now grown into what can safely be called a beacon of good and innovative cooperation between different winegrowers: focused on innovation and quality, with respect and passion for the land and its fruit.

D.O. La Mancha

Located in the south of the Castilian meseta, 60 km from Madrid, La Mancha is Spain's largest designation of origin. It comprises 30,700 square kilometres which is about half of the Province of Castile. The vineyards are located across 182 municipalities: 12 in the district of Albacete, 58 in Ciudad Real, 66 in Cuenca and 46 in Toledo, although some changes are in the pipeline as some areas have not fully updated their registrations.
Despite a low yield per hectare, La Mancha is an ideal winemaking region because the quality of the fruit, the ripening cycle and the health of the vines are all exceptionally good.
The image of La Mancha as an immense plateau with a desert-like landscape producing huge quantities of plonk has long since disappeared. Nowadays these wines have undoubtedly earned their place among the most renowned wines in the world.
Furthermore, La Mancha is the world's largest wine producing region, with a total area of 191,699 hectares of vineyard, an astounding amount and one that means that a large part of all Spanish wines are produced in this area.

Until a few decades ago, La Mancha was mostly known for the production of distilled wine alcohol and moderately interesting bulk wines - especially white wine made from the Airèn grape. But as a result of recent investments in technology, equipment and above all by attracting the right people (oenologists and chemists), the quality has soared. Although there is clearly still work to be done. Meantime, white grape varieties other than Airèn have been planted (Macabeo, Sauvignon Blanc en Chardonnay). The Cencibel (Tempranillo) area, in red, has increased to more than 18,000 hectares, and is now being supplemented with Monrovia, Garnacha and Syrah, ...

Climate: The plains of La Mancha, located at an average altitude of circa 700 metres, typically have a continental climate; perishingly cold winters give way almost immediately in spring to the scorching heat of summer. Summer temperatures often reach 45ºC, while winter temperatures can fall as low as -12/15ºC. 
The area is relatively flat with only the occasional hill. The reddish brown soil, which comes from Miocene sediment, has a high limestone content.
The area is dry all year long as the surrounding mountains block rain from coming in from the sea.
Rainfall is scarce – only 300 to 400 mm per year – and long, dry spells are common. This is one of the main reasons too for the fact that more than 95% of La Mancha's vineyards consist of very dry farmland. Furthermore, the region gets more than 3,000 hours of sun per year.