MEET MARÍA DEL YERRO President, Grandes Pagos de España
My husband and I were captivated by the world of wine 30 years ago when we were living in Logroño, La Rioja. Javier spent nearly 25 years of his professional life working in the family business, a large company created by his grandfather focused on the pharmaceutical industry. As his family is originally from La Rioja, they were also interested in making wine, and had two larger wineries. Javier managed these wineries for a few years, and that's when we moved to La Rioja. Since then, we’ve met a lot of wine producers, and in the process, we have fallen in love with the world of wine.
Neither of us are originally winemakers or agronomists: Javier is an economist, and I am a French and English Interpreter & Translator and a mother of five (highlighted as this is my proudest job title!) I have been lucky to bring up my five children while translating into my free hours (very few). In 2002, my husband and I founded Viñedos Alonso del Yerro, our own wonderful wine project, with the aim of leaving an important legacy to our children and grandchildren that can be enjoyed together for many years to come. And from that date, I have never had time to translate again!
MY MISSION
From the beginning we knew the importance of the vineyard in winemaking, and therefore we shared the Grandes Pagos de España (GPE) philosophy and applied to join their Association as soon as possible.
My mission at Viñedos Alonso del Yerro has been to communicate this philosophy of terroir wines wines of the highest quality and with unique personality, a philosophy shared by the 36 wineries that make up GPE.
Founder Carlos Falcó's period was essential to put the Association on the map, as he was a public figure and wherever he went, GPE went, which gave us great visibility. Under Toni Sarrión's presidency, we have achieved much-needed credibility by "bringing order" to the technical side of the association, with the Knowledge Network, the Protocols for admitting new members and the Expert Tasting Committee, all of which are essential to demonstrate the seriousness of all the wineries that are members of the Association not only to the outside world, but also internally, making our teams gain confidence and soak up the "pride of belonging "
I believe that we are now entering a stage of consolidation of the GPE brand, and this will be my mission during these years: to ensure that GPE grows in importance; that there is a desire (and, as I said before, pride) to belong to the Association among current members and those who I hope will join in the coming years; and that we are able to spread the value and importance of our unique Spanish wines throughout the world I assure you that I will focus all my efforts on this.
I count on a Board of Directors committed to the Association, as they have demonstrated throughout these years; and on an excellent Advisory Committee, dynamic and eager to debate. We are already setting up different working committees to advance our objective and to make GPE grow in importance: among others, the Training Plan Committee, the New Members Committee, the Wine Tourism Committee and the Marketing & Communications Committee.
I ask for the collaboration of all the wineries, the founders and the young generations that have already joined, and to be able to ask for support also from the technicians of each winery. Unity is strength, and together, we will achieve success in our organization
Likewise, I believe that there are regions in Spain not yet represented in our Association, wineries that would be magnificent to attract to our already large family; wineries that share our philosophy, that make magnificent wines that express their terroir; serious family projects with a desire for continuity; in short, wineries that would be "candidates" to join the Association. For me, it would be satisfactory to see that, at the end of my mandate, the Association has managed to attract several of them.