Abadía Retuerta’s Vendimia Solidaria 2021: A Strong Commitment to Social Projects and Art, Through Wine

For the eighth consecutive year, the prestigious winery in the Duero Valley is launching a new vintage of Vendimia Solidaria, its “charity harvest” wine. It is also the second vintage to have a special link with art.

Vendimia Solidaria began in 2014, and its main purpose is to highlight the hard work of the associations and foundations that safeguard and promote the community development of groups at risk of social exclusion. This vital sense of social responsibility is shared by Abadía Retuerta, where solidarity is one of the pillars that sustains its winemaking project. Abadía Retuerta is also a firm supporter of art, regarding it as a key tool for transmitting ideas and values, as reflected in the new label for Vendimia Solidaria 2021.

Marina González Guerreiro is this year’s selected artist, and her beautiful label design features a set of six tiles that come together to spell Un Año (“One Year”), symbolising a 2022 calendar. Her creative process begins with observing nature and all its richness, which nourishes and creates communities. The design’s composition alludes to the sustainability at the very heart of Abadía Retuerta’s vision.

This year, Vendimia Solidaria has been a collaboration with the Fundación Intras, a non-profit organisation that supports people with mental health issues as they seek to rebuild their lives. These people are offered training and other guidance to help them return to the workplace.

Last year, a team from this organisation was hired by Abadía Retuerta to collaborate in the grape harvest, the winery’s busiest time of the year. The result of this work was a wine made entirely from the Syrah (Shiraz) variety, with carbonic maceration. It is a very delicate winemaking process, requiring great dedication, and it produces a highly aromatic and fresh wine. 100% of the revenue will be donated to this laudable, non-profit social charity.

For Ana Hernández, Abadía Retuerta’s Director of People & Organisation, the Vendimia Solidaria initiative is “a very enriching project, in all senses of the word, and it shows a great commitment to pressing social issues. The people who come here to work are at risk of social exclusion, so it helps opens doors for their future career. Furthermore, the Abadía Retuerta team offer them some fantastic training, regardless of their background. For our team, this is not just another few days at work: it’s a wonderful experience.”

The success of a social project
Abadía Retuerta — the renowned winery located in the Duero Valley’s famed Golden Mile — has been engaged with social ventures since 2014. Various different charity projects have since come to fruition, in collaboration with a range of local associations and foundations in the province of Valladolid. These projects have great soul, and they are the result of true commitment, effort and cooperation.

That first year, Abadía Retuerta collaborated with Fundación Persona, a group that works to help people with mental disabilities integrate into society. They received a vehicle as a donation. The following year, in 2015, the winery worked alongside the Fundación RedIncola, an entity that supports some of the most vulnerable people, mostly immigrant communities. As part of the project “Connecting People, Creating Opportunities”, there was a fundraising campaign to buy school materials like textbooks, and help with other educational fees.

For the third edition, in 2016, the Casa de Juventud Aleste joined Abadía Retuerta under the motto “We are in control of our future”. In this project, disadvantaged young people from the east of Valladolid, those at risk of social exclusion, helped in the grape-picking season. The winery helped finance a social education programme, with the aim of creating more posts for educators and to create further educational material and textbooks.

Fundación Cauce gave their name to the fourth edition of Vendimia Solidaria. Their motto, “Guide your future”, was key to this charity project. They received 100% of the wine’s revenue, which went towards funding workshops to help get people into work and other social skills.

In 2018, the Fundación Juan Soñador participated in the fifth edition. For the project Tierra Viva Catering, with the motto “You are the future”, 1,250 bottles of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon were put on sale. The revenues were donated to the foundation in 2019, so that disadvantaged young people, at the risk of social exclusion, could receive training to help them enter the workplace.

In 2019, El Puente Salud Mental in Valladolid took part in the project, in its sixth year. Under the motto “A bridge to a professional future”, they seek to improve the lives of people suffering from mental health problems, while also supporting their families.

And in 2020, the Fundación Kumen, in cooperation with the REDMADRE association from Valladolid, were the collaborators for the seventh edition. They work to encourage ethical human values with a special focus on childhood; through REDMADRE, they help families by providing them with the vital products they need in their day-to-day lives. In total, Vendimia Solidaria 2020 brought in 11,863 euros.

Engagement and commitment
This charity initiative has been possible thanks to the altruistic support of various different people and entities. Marina González Guerreiro designed the label; Iglesias Comunicación worked on design and photography; Mata Digital printed the cards; Biolid produced the labels; Veralliamanufactured the bottles; the corks were made by Baruque and the bottle caps by Ramondin.

Contact:
Abadía Retuerta Communication Department
Alejandra Pedrosa / Patricia Garvía
Telephone: +34 610 275 207 / +34 610 468 604
E-mail: Comunicacion@abadia-retuerta.es