Alma Carraovejas has been awarded the prize for innovation in the first edition of the Valladolid Viticulture Awards “The Soul of Wine” organized by the Association of Winegrowers of the D.O. Rueda with the support of the Provincial Council of Valladolid and whose award ceremony was held at the Zorrilla theater in Valladolid. Pedro Ruiz Aragoneses was proud to receive this recognition, which rewards research and the commitment to new technologies applied to the vineyard and winery in search of the highest quality in the raw material, the grape, and the final product, the wine.
Innovation at Alma Carraovejas is present in all areas of the company and acts as a driving force for development and change, enabling the promotion of different R&D&I projects to transform the great challenges of the wine sector, such as soil biodiversity, biological control of pests and diseases, the use of by-products, climate change in the vineyard and winery, and precision viticulture, into future opportunities with a sustainable perspective.
Award for innovation in the Viticultura de Valladolid “El alma del vino” awards.
“It is an honor to receive this award, which is promoted by the winemakers themselves and is a recognition of the passion and commitment of the entire team and highlights the work of a sector that is essential for our land. At Alma Carraovejas we are convinced that great wines are made in the vineyard. And we seek respect and balance to preserve and enhance the value of a unique heritage for our land. To continue improving every day, seeking innovation and a sustainable vision, in the broadest sense of the word, which allows us to address the great challenges of the sector. Understanding that the vineyard is not an inheritance from our parents but a loan from our children. And that this heritage allows us to continue building legacies that transcend to the next generations, giving back to the land what we take with the utmost respect and working for the development of our people, taking the name of our land around the world”, explains Pedro Ruiz, Alma Carraovejas.
Pedro Ruiz with the rest of the award winners in the courtyard of the Pimentel Palace.
To protect an exceptional natural legacy in the form of vines, Alma Carraovejas is committed to respectful viticulture, with an organic vineyard work system and the implementation of several innovation projects to achieve the objective: microbiological recovery of the soil through mulching and plant covers; interventions in the rhizosphere with organic fertilization on demand or introduction of beneficial microorganisms such as mycorrhizae, Trichoderma and plant growth promoting bacteria in the soil to increase resistance to disease or drought. Likewise, phytosanitary products and synthetic chemicals are replaced by biological control methods, organic fertilizers and the study of environmental conditions and entomofauna for the correct application of treatments in viticulture tasks.
Alma Carraovejas is currently carrying out several R&D&I projects. At Pago de Carraovejas, the VID VISION study is being developed to research and design a hybrid system based on aerial images and satellite data to train AI models for the automatic determination and counting of faults in the vineyard; VITICOS has just been completed in Marañones, which has made it possible to analyze the effect of plant covers on the capacity to increase organic carbon in the soil of an organic and biodynamic vineyard in the context of climate change; in Aiurri, the REVIVID project is being carried out with the aim of seeking combined strategies that allow the replacement of vine plants in old vineyards of the D.O.Ca. Rioja; at Ossian Vides y Vinos, the PADIH REDOX project is enabling the adoption of disruptive digital technologies for measuring sulfite and reduction oxide reactions to monitor their evolution during the winemaking process using analytical equipment with remote reading; Viña Meín – Emilio Rojo is developing a vineyard rot prediction system through the ROTEND project; and finally, Milsetentayseis has recently completed the LOWPHWINE project to study factors related to the soil, the plant and the oenological microbiota and their influence on the acidity balance of wines in a context of climate change.
First Viticulture Awards Ceremony
The union of these values, innovation and sustainability has allowed Alma Carraovejas to adapt its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) culture in a strategy that seeks development not only in the three traditional aspects: economic, environmental and social, but has added two more dimensions: emotional and ethical governance. In each of these areas, specific actions are carried out to continue the search for the highest quality of its products, promoting the welfare of the entire environment and with the firm purpose of safeguarding a natural heritage in the form of vineyards to be passed on to future generations.
