Which wineries to visit on the La Mancha Wine Route

The reasons that will surely lead you to make one escape or a car route through La Mancha they may be discovering the most picturesque corners of its towns, visit its most notable monuments or enjoy its most characteristic landscapes.

But, without a doubt, the wine tourism It is also a powerful argument to travel to this natural region of the Community of Castile-La Mancha.

In addition to cultural visits, tourist activities and gastronomy, visit wineries to do tastings and delve deeper into the wine culture in this territory it is the common thread of the La Mancha Wine Route.

Under this name are grouped the main wine tourism attractions of the municipalities of Alcázar de San Juan, Campo de Criptana, Socuéllamos, Tomelloso in Ciudad Real, El Toboso in Toledo and Villarrobledo in Albacete.

Facing your wine tourism getaway to this wine-growing area, you should know that in Castilla la Mancha Half of the wine production in Spain is concentrated, with up to 30 million liters per year.

Currently they are cultivated up to 15 grape varieties, being the cencibel (Tempranillo) the native for red wine and the airen, that of white wine.

Yes, historically La Mancha it has been a white wine area whose production represented 90 percent of the total, although in recent decades this percentage has been reduced to the current 65 percent.

During your car route you will see that in the large areas of vineyards, there are more and more espaliered vines, which facilitates mechanization or night harvesting, although it requires more water compared to glass vines.

Which wineries to visit on the La Mancha Wine Route

Below we are going to propose some of the wineries most significant that you can visit on said getaway, with their different characteristics, so that you can then make your own travel plan according to your interests and curiosities.

César Velasco Wineries in Villarrobledo

One of the most traditional elements of the wine culture in La Mancha they are the big ones fired clay jars used for fermentation, and the town that represents this tradition is Villarrobledo, where at the beginning of the 92th century there were up to XNUMX kilns for the production of these jars.

In addition to visiting the Tinajera Pottery Interpretation Center, riding a Villarrobledo can visit a winery who currently continues to work with the aforementioned fired clay jars.

Is César Velasco Wineries, which in the third generation is the only one that maintains this tradition, currently with 54 4.000-liter jars, some more than 130 years old.

As highlighted to us Cesar Velasco During our visit, this type of jars promotes the natural cleanliness and oxygenation of the wine, whose current production focuses on young white and red wines with the brands Laminio y Candlestick.

Perales Wineries in Tomelloso

Meanwhile, in Tomelloso you can also visit a traditional winery.

These are the old facilities of Perales Wineries, which date back to 1912 and have currently been enabled for the activity of the wine tourism.

Now integrated into the Tomelloso Wine Cooperative, this winery has 100 hectares of its own vineyards and it was in 1986 when work stopped on the facilities that you can now visit.

During the visit you will go down to its cave, one of the more than 4.000 that in the past were cataloged in Tomelloso.

You will also see the ship with large cement jars, which allowed the winery to have a capacity of up to 600.000 liters of wine, production that was mostly exported in bulk to Bordeaux.

Tomelloso Wine Cooperative

In the same Tomelloso You can also visit the aforementioned Wine Cooperative, which was founded by several winery families in 1986.

This cooperative has the latest technology for wine production, including large tanks of between 25.000 and 100.000 liters.

Its current production is two million bottles per year, although 80 percent of the grapes received by the cooperative are dedicated to the production of bulk wine and must for wine production, concentrates for food and fructose.

The brands marketed by Tomelloso Wine Cooperative consist of Indigo y Gazate Tower, with young wines, Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva and Cava, for the production of which it has 2.000 American oak barrels.

These wines are produced under the DO La Mancha and Tierras de Castilla, half of the production being exported.

Here you have the information for visit the Tomelloso Wine Cooperative.

EHD Winery in Socuéllamos

Of course in the La Mancha Wine Route You also have the possibility of visiting a winery located on a farm surrounded by large areas of vineyards.

That is the case of the EHD Winery (Hermanos Delgado Farms) located near Socuélamos, which has 300 hectares of its own vineyards.

EHD Winery is dedicated to the organic wine production from a wide variety of grapes, from Tempranillo, Red garnacha, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, airen, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay y Muscat.

With an annual production of 4 million bottles and 85 percent dedicated to export, some notable brands are Theresa, Lordship of the Saints, Macatela y Los Robles Road.

During your wine tourism visit You will tour its facilities, which include a museum area and a cave, and you will taste three of its wines.

Castiblanque Wineries in Campo de Criptana

En Campo de Criptana you have the opportunity to visit a traditional La Mancha winery which dates back to 1867, which has 110 hectares of its own vineyards.

Is Castiblanque Wineries, a third-generation family winery, with an annual production of one million bottles, with the brands baldor, ilex y Only.

This winery offers a variety of wine tourism activities, from the guided tour of the winery to various types of tastings, like that of the must during the harvest season, which we were able to enjoy during our visit.

Old Estate in Los Hinojosos

Another alternative that you have on your car trip through the places of the La Mancha Wine Route es visit a winery chateau.

La Finca Antigua Winery You find it near the town of The Hinojosos, in the province of Cuenca, in a different landscape environment than what you will see in the other areas covered by this wine route.

The winery is located on a farm of about 1.000 hectares, at 900 meters above sea level, where you can see not only landscapes of vineyards, but also Mediterranean forest with holm oaks and holm oaks.

Finca Antigua It is part of a company that belongs to a family originally from Rioja that in 1999 decided to also settle in La Mancha, with 420 hectares of its own vineyards where up to 14 different varieties of grapes are grown.

With an annual production of one million bottles, and 80 percent exported to 60 countries, the most prominent brands are Finca Antigua y Clavis.

Campos de Dulcinea Winery in El Toboso

On the other hand, you visit of El Toboso In the province of Toledo you can complement it by knowing the Campos de Dulcinea Winery.

It is a family winery that dates back to 1926, which has its own vineyards, where glass vines are grown exclusively, which are characterized by their low production of just two or three kilos of grapes per vine and by their manual harvesting. ,

Therefore, Campos de Dulcinea Winery is a rara avis in this wine-growing area of ​​large wineries and cooperatives, since its annual production barely reaches 100.000 liters.

Specialized in the production of quality wines that they market under the brands Dulcinea Fields y OK, for aging they use French oak barrels that are renewed every year.

Currently it is the only winery that you can visit in The Toboso, where there were up to 80 family wineries in the 80s, when due to a crisis they all ended up grouping themselves into a cooperative.

Among its wine tourism activities A joint visit of the town that became famous for El Quijote, in which in addition to visiting its most notable corners, you will get to know the winery with the help of the winemaker and taste some of its wines.

Photos of wineries in La Mancha

Here you have more photos of some of the wineries that you can visit in the La Mancha Wine Route.