Valdespino

Valdespino is one of the oldest bodegas in Jerez, if not the oldest. Its history dates back to 1264, when King Alfonso X rewarded the knight Alfonso Valdespino for his help in liberating Jerez from the Moors. Valdespino was given a parcel of vineyards and started making wine.

Commercial activities were said to be started in 1430 and the formal ‘company’ of today was founded in 1875. It quickly gained a lot of fame and became a supplier of the Royal Houses of Spain and Sweden. It has always been known as a traditional house, which stayed in the Valdespino family until 1999. At the end of the 1990’s, the Valdespino family was losing interest in the sherry trade and in 1999 the company was sold to the Grupo Estévez.

Valdespino is still sticking to old methods and traditions. More than anyone else they are stressing the importance of terroir, making single-vineyard sherries, a concept that has become rare these days. Moreover they are still fermenting wines in wooden barrels, as the last company in the sherry industry.