Bodegas: Cooperativa Nuestra Senora de las Angustias

Also known as Covijerez, this cooperative bodega was founded in 1967 by growers who decided to set up their own business for making and selling wine. They felt this gave them more security than merely selling grapes to the big producers. No less than 311 growers are members of the cooperative, and between them they control 995 hectares of Palomino vineyard - 14% of the total vineyard. Covijerez is the largest of the seven cooperatives in the Jerez area. It was a member of the grade 2 super coop Aecovi till the latter went bust in 2015.

The bodegas contain 5,800 butts comprising soleras of Fino, Amontillado and Oloroso; a fermentation bodega in two parts with stainless steel tanks with a combined capacity of 13.4 million litres; a production area with the wine presses; a storage area where they keep all the tools and equipment. In 2013, 11 million kilos of grapes were pressed here.

The bodega is keen to progress its business by getting involved in oeno-tourism and by taking advantage of the proximity of Ikea, which should attract many potential visitors to the bodega.

While grapes, concentrated musts and wine are still sold to other bodegas, the Cooperative has its own range of wines which they are keen to promote, and which are:

Fino Sin Pecado (available in the Tabanco Plateros)

The Romerito range : Amontillado Romerito, Oloroso Seco Romerito, Medium Romerito, Cream Romerito, Pedro Ximenez Romerito. The coop also makes Vinegar.

As the growers own no PX, it is bought in. The finished wines are available in bulk to tabancos, bars and restaurants, or in bottle. They are of very good quality.

Address: Ctra. N-IV (Circunvalacion), Km. 638, Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz
Telephone: (+34) 956 301 209
Web: www.covijerez.es
Visits? Yes by arrangement

News from Jerez 28.8.12

The biggest of the Jerez cooperatives, Nuestra Senora de las Angustias, known generally as the Jerez Cooperative, has begun harvesting in earnest. Between its 200 members the coop owns some 800 hectares of vineyard, making it the biggest vineyard owner in the region, followed by Grupo Estevez with about 750 hectares. From their 800 hectares the coop predicts a yield of between 6 and 7 million kilos of grapes, or about 7,000 kilos per hectare.

This year’s yield is well down on last year since only about 300 litres of rain per square metre fell – less than half the average – where a normal year would have produced a yield of about 10,000 kilos per hectare. Nonetheless, the coop is expecting 200 lorries a day discharging 700,000 – 800,000 kilos of grapes into the presses, until the end of the harvest next Thursday or Friday.

This year about 40% of the harvest will be picked by machine, though most of the mechanical picking is done by the vineyard-owning bodegas, rather than small growers whose holdings average some 3 hectares each. The quality is very good, very healthy, but the quantity is down due to smaller grapes.