BERNABELEVA

Madrid, Spain

In 1923, Dr Vicente Álvarez-Villamil bought Bernabeleva, an estate in San Martín de Valdeiglesias (Madrid). It is located at the foot of the Cerro de Guisando and the Gredos mountains and adjacent to the Tórtolas stream that formed the border of two Roman provinces: Lusitania and Tarraconense.

For decades, Dr Álvarez-Villamil’s descendants have fondly taken care of the old vines he planted, with the intention of someday producing quality honest wines.

In Bernabeleva, we work the vineyard with a respect for balance with nature. Eco labels are not our aim, although we work to be worthy of them.  The wines, produced from autochthonous varieties, show off differences in orientation, vegetation, altitude and soil of each locale.  In the winery, we attempt to maintain the virtues of the raw material we obtain from the vineyard.

Our wines express the characteristics of the vineyards and their surroundings, and our viticulture is in tune with its environment, for we understand it is the only way to work.

Our logo represents the goddess of hunt, to whom, in ancient times, sacred forests were dedicated.  In pre Roman cultures, consecration of a forest to this deity was signaled on tree barks or on something more imperishable like stone.

Bernabeleva, literally, means the path of the bear, where the bear lives, or next to the bear.  We have used two primary inspirations in the design of our logo: the nearby Toros de Guisando (which maybe bears, bulls or boars); an old photo of Luisa, the doctor’s daughter, mimicking the myth of Europa and Zeus.

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