The city of Valdepeñas is already home to the largest still wine barrel warehouse in the world, a "durable" infrastructure, which has received investment support from the Government of Castilla-La Mancha.

This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, Francisco Martínez Arroyo, who this Monday visited the new self-supporting barrel cellar of the company Félix Solis Avantis, in that town. It is the largest existing plant in the world, with a capacity for 130,000 barrels and fully automated, which begins the process of arrival in a washing train moving 90 barrels an hour with the placement of around 1,000 a day in the 18 storey warehouse.

Accompanied by the president of Félix Solís Avantis, Félix Solís, as well as the purchasing director, Carlos Nieto, and the general director of Food, Elena Escobar; the delegate of the Board in the province, Carmen Olmedo and the delegate of Agriculture in Ciudad Real, Amparo Bremard, among others, Martínez Arroyo has toured the facilities of an infrastructure, about to be completed and that has had the support of the regional government with an investment aid of nearly 3 million euros within the last Vinati, which means 20 percent financing of the warehouse work and all the barrels that represent an increase in production for the company.

In this line, the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, has indicated that the Government of Castilla-La Mancha is going to follow this line of support for the sector, with "long-lasting" investments such as this "that guarantee the future of a sector like wine and a DO like Valdepeñas».

These works, he said, are about to be completed, they are of a fundamental facility "for the future of wine" and, for this, he thanked Félix Solís for his commitment to the wine sector, with his people and with the DO Valdepeñas.

And it is that all this wine stored in the barrels will end up in the national and international markets labeled as DO Valdepeñas, which means, he said, "that the future of the DO depends on facilities like this one".

In this way, he has reflected that this warehouse "is the culmination of the work that has been carried out together to guarantee the greatest traceability in the world in the DO Valdepeñas". A denomination currently managed by the regional Executive, in which "things have improved and there is no problem". In this way, the councilor has sent a message of calm to members and consumers about a wine that reaches 150 countries around the world.

Thus, he continued, the DO is being managed with "neatness" and "guaranteeing maximum traceability", in a denomination that is the oldest and the most recognized by consumers at a national and international level, for which he thanked the work that is done by companies like this.

Martínez Arroyo has underlined the importance of exports in the sector, the goal being the global market and being able to make the wine that the world is demanding. For this, he has remarked, production must be oriented towards export, "it is the way to go".

In figures, at the moment, 56 percent of the volume that Spain imports each year in wine is from Castilla-La Mancha and the time has come to "make an extra effort in bottling, as this company does," explained Arroyo. “It is the one that gives the most value, up to six times more than the bulk”, and in each of those bottles, from any of the nine appellations of origin in wine in the region, “it bears the name of Castilla-La Mancha” , it is finished.