We are in the most important wine-growing region in the South of Spain, it is conformed in a fertile triangle created between the municipalities of Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Puerto de Santa María. According to Strabo (a Greek geographer from the 1st century BC), the vines that were already cultivated in Jerez in his time had been imported by the Phoenicians almost a thousand years earlier.
Productive region, located in a limestone area near the mouth of the Guadalquivir river, which was originally flooded by lagoons and salt marshes that were known jointly with the name of "Ligustino Lake", once Once these lands were dried, the sediments and fossils that were deposited there for millions of years, converted them together with their extraordinary accumulation of humidity and their prolonged hours of direct sunlight on the vine,
A variety that reached the Iberian Peninsula during the reign of Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany, when some peasants from the banks of the Rhine and Moselle were recruited to constitute the so-called “Tercios de Alemanes” that made up the Armies of the Spanish Empire and accompanied the Emperor back to Spain after its proclamation in 1519.
Apparently with the German Tercio came the winegrowers who brought to Spain the first vine shoots of some grapes unknown until then in the Iberian Peninsula. It is a fruit with great similarities to the varieties "Riesling", "Weissable" and "Elbling", but after developing its own characteristics in Spain for almost five hundred years, it has come to not exactly coincide with any of them.
Among the Spanish estates where the first strains of this new variety sprouted, the “Pago de Los Tercios” stands out in the heart of Marco de Jerez, next to the village of Las Tablas. However, it is documented that Montilla also , Málaga and Castilleja de Guzmán grew this variety. Although, over the years, it was the vine growers of Jerez and Montilla who assumed greater prominence.
which according to oral tradition, was phonetically deformed and changed word "Peter" for "Pedro" and "Siemens" for "Ximénez". This theory is documented in the 1636 edition of the work “Cosmographía Generalis” published in Amsterdam by the Dutch geographer Paul Merula.
Ximénez-Spínola is the Jerez winery of the Successors of Phelipe Antonio Zarzana Spínola, cuy The first export documented in notarial protocols dates from 1729, although in the winery no manuscripts related to its commercial activity are preserved until 1736 and on this particular varietal crop, until 1752.
The circumstances of “Ximénez-Spínola” make it a unique winery in the whole of Jerez, since no other family with a viticultural tradition has dedicated itself and continues to dedicate itself exclusively to the Pedro Ximenez grape , obtaining the recognition of the Spanish authorities with the concession of the “Pedro Ximénez Varietal Denomination of Own Accreditation”.
They are developed with techniques created by ourselves with which our family has distinguished itself in recent years, for being completely different from the elaborations currently covered by the DO Jerez-Xerés-Sherry.
Precisely due to these differences when it comes to vinifying and distilling, Ximénez-Spínola continues to be an independent and family-oriented company with no interest in the production of large volumes but for quality and loyalty of its followers. Consequently, by unanimous agreement of the Family Council, all our production is limited and numbered, which makes each bottle unique, while guaranteeing the quality and excellence of its content.
We like our condition “Casa de Viticultores” which continues to make important decisions through the Family Council or the Tasting and Selection Committee and despite not wanting to develop high productions, we are very proud to satisfy our customers and to continue in the office of our elders as they would if they were in our place today.
The tradition of a family dedicated to viticulture is not at odds with the desire to surround ourselves with the best collaborators in each of the matters that are part of our production and management processes. However,
Today in XIMÉNEZ-SPÍNOLA, already in the ninth generation since the founding of the company, working as our predecessors did, with eternal gratitude to those who started those soleras that could not finish and putting us The same bases of the elaborations with which our children will continue to make our name great.
