The origins of the DIEZ-CABALLERO winery are shrouded in mystery and lost in the mists of time.
Its ancient cellars once belonged to the Church but were privatised with the confiscation of church properties by Mendizábal in the 1830s. My grandfather Miguel Cenea bought them in the 20th century.
Together with other wineries owned by my father Victor Cañas (La Cueva Alta, El Olivar, El Olmo, El Molino and El Cubierto) it formed part of a great wine company whose output was shipped to the Alhóndiga wine clearing house in Bilbao.
We are talking about more than a million litres of wine here. The main stockists were Juan José Arrate, Miñaur and Valentín Heredia.
My enthusiasm for the world of wine-making proved to be contagious and my husband Antonio Diez-Caballero, an industrial engineer whose forbears owned some fine vineyards in Elciego, was able to split his time between his work in copper metallurgy and the winery. Our children Victoria and Antonio joined the work-force as soon as they left university, so ours is an entirely family-run company. Indeed, the only non-family members with whom we deal regularly are repeat customers.
I have chosen to make this a small winery that takes special care of its wines and pays them all the attention that they deserve in order to realise their full, magical potential.
As we embark on this adventure to produce unforgettable wines, the mainstay of our efforts is our oenologist Manuel Ruiz Hernández, with Antonio Diez-Caballero Junior running the day-to-day affairs of the company.