Cuatro Rayas officially opens new winery
Dignitaries joined the Bodega Cuatro Rayas winery team to reveal 3,000 square metres of new facilities, cementing its position at the heart of Verdejo winemaking.
A new winery – already used to welcome the 2025 harvest – has been officially opened at Bodega Cuatro Rayas. The facility will be key to the winery’s Verdejo production, including the DO Rueda for which it is widely renowned.
Spanning 3,000 square metres and costing six million euros, it represents a significant investment as the winery, founded in 1935, celebrates its 90th year. The extension is fully integrated into existing facilities, meaning it expands the current winery’s capacity as well as incorporating new technology. The expansion includes space to store four million litres of Verdejo wine.
The new selection of equipment includes cutting-edge stainless steel vats which allow storage of such significant volumes of wine. Bodega Cuatro Rayas has also purchased two presses, each of which has a capacity of 35,000 kilograms of grapes. That means that, over a 24 hour period, the winery can process more than 200,000kg of grapes.
Volume is not the only benefit of the new facilities, however. Bodega Cuatro Rayas has taken action to bolster its sustainability credentials in recent years, and the facilities upgrade turns to the other half of the sustainability equation: fostering resilience in the face of climate change. The increased capacity and nimble, modern operations help the winemakers face unpredictable weather conditions. With faster processing, the grapes will not need to wait on the vine where they might be damaged in bad weather, or indeed wait in the winery which could risk them losing freshness.
The new winery will also increase efficiency and specificity. Selections by plot, vine age and grape variety will be simpler with the new setup.
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Recognition of 90 years’ work
With the 2025 vintage, the facilities were opened in the true sense: receiving grapes ready for the next tranche of Bodega Cuatro Rayas’ wines. However, with the hubbub of harvest now passed, its winemaker could enjoy an official opening with special guests on 3 November.
Luis Planas, the Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, inaugurated the new facilities alongside María González Corral, the Regional Minister of Agriculture of the Government of Castilla y León. Planas took the opportunity to praise Bodega Cuatro Rayas’ quality, innovation and commitment to equal opportunities.
Meanwhile, González Corral highlighted the importance of cooperatives such as Bodega Cuatro Rayas to the local economy. The winery is famed for its innovative work with Verdejo and its commitment to DO Rueda, but it is also a key socio-economic support for the locality, with its members farming 2,600 hectares of vineyards.
For Ignacio Martín Obregón, the president of Bodega Cuatro Rayas, the new project falling alongside 90th anniversary celebrations is the perfect representation of Bodega Cuatro Rayas’ multifaceted approach.
“This coincidence perfectly reflects our essence,” he says. “Cuatro Rayas is not only known for promoting and preserving tradition in viticulture and winemaking, but since its founding, it has also stood out for its clear commitment to innovation, both in the vineyards and in the winery.”
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