The label Bodegas Mendoza, producer of D.0. Alicante wines, has been voted Best Wine Producer 2007 by verema.com, Spain’s largest online community of wine connoisseurs. This choice was made by the website’s registered users, who currently number almost 400,000. This award joins the numerous distinctions earned by Bodegas Mendoza, such as Best Spanish Red 2006, awarded by the prestigious Enoforum circle for it’s Santa Rosa 2002 wine and the high ratings it has earned in specialised guidebooks.

The label was founded by Enrique Mendoza as a family firm in 1989, although its roots stretch back to the late 197Os, when Enrique Mendoza started buying bottles as a passion and investing in wine by other producers. Today the family concern is in the style of a French chateau, producing only wines from its own harvests, and comprises two wine cellars: one in L’Alfás and the other in Villena.

Enrique Mandoza’s first steps were to recover the traditional method of winemaking and he planted 100 vines with which he made his first barrel for personal consumptien. Following an experimental phase with a vineyard 2,000 vines strong in L’Alfás, the Mendoza family moved to Villena to plant another 120,000 vines. The L’Alfás winery is now surrounded by a fivehectare plantation for the production of Muscatel wines, and the Villena winery covers 80 hectares, half of which are planted with the Cabernet Sauvignon variety, while the other half comprises Merlot, Pinot Noir and Shiraz for red wines and Chardonnay and Parellada for whites.