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Wine and Health The pairing of these two words is unsurprising, isn’t it? Wine has often been touted as healthful when consumed in moderation, beneficial for the heart if limited to a glass, a potent weapon against diabetes and cholesterol: the secret of the long-lived. But how true are these claims? Let’s not succumb to generalities and clichés; health is a serious matter that demands precision.   The French Paradox… Years ago at Pradorey, we began to delve into the work of Roger Corder, a professor at Queen Mary University of London, author of “The Wine Diet” translated into over 25 languages, and a keen researcher of the so-called “French paradox”. This refers to the puzzling nutritional fact that the French population, despite a diet rich in animal saturated fats, has a remarkably low mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases compared to the rest of Europe. In 1994, Serge Renaud, a research director at INSERM in Bordeaux, postulated in an article for the prestigious Lancet journal that moderate wine consumption could counteract the impact of these saturated fats.After years of research, Professor Roger Corder discovered that this French paradox wasn’t uniformly observed throughout France. Instead, it was more pronounced in regions

Fernando Rodríguez de Rivera Cremades, grandson of founder Javier Cremades de Adaro and third generation at the helm of our winery, took over as general manager in 2007. He immediately had to deal with a financial crisis that undoubtedly helped him to keep a cool head during the next big downturn: the pandemic. However, daring to believe in oneself, as one can read on the label of our Adaro, the wine that is a tribute to our grandfather is a determining factor when it comes to entrepreneurship. And also the learning that comes from each mistake and never losing sight of the company’s ultimate goal. That is why, during these bad times, he has reinforced the vision of our brand, Pradorey, rather than changing it. We remain true to ourselves and never enter into price wars. We are committed to value-added products focused on the end consumer, so we can convert our customers into fans of our brand. We retain planned investment, even if that may seem a little crazy, in products such as our white wine cellar and new plantings. We maintain, and even expand, the number of employees on our team; a fundamental part of this great family.

There are many ways to make wine, but there is only one that is able to overcome time so that it is the soil, the vineyard and the grape that transcends. Subsequently the Solera ageing process begins. OXIDATIVE AGEING VS BIOLOGICAL AGEING It is clear that ageing is one of the most important factors in determining the quality of a wine. If done correctly, it will provide new sensory characteristics, achieving greater complexity and character in the final result. Oenologically, there are two main types of ageing: oxidative ageing, which, as its name suggests, takes place in the presence of oxygen, and biological ageing, in the absence of oxygen. There is a third way that mixes both for a very defined type of wine (amontillados and palo cortados, for example). STATIC AGEING VS DYNAMIC AGEING In the same way, another type of classification can also be established depending on the mobility of the wine during its presence in the barrel. Thus, we can speak of static ageing, in which the wine of a given vintage remains in the same barrel for the time stipulated by the winemaker, or, on the other hand, there is the Criadera and Solera system, which is dynamic. In this system, wines with different degrees of ageing are blended in order to maintain certain characteristics in the wine for whole decades, as it results from combining all the vintages since the foundation of the ‘soleraje’, as it is called. CRIADERA AND SOLERA SYSTEM This is a model in which the barrels (or butts in the case of sherries) are arranged in rows, each of which has a specific ageing group. The bottled wine is taken from the row of barrels closest to the ground, called ‘solera’; an operation known as ‘saca’. The amount of wine removed is restored with the same amount from the first criadera above. The task of replenishing the barrels with wine from the next row up is called ‘rocío’. The wine taken from the first criadera is replenished with wine from the second criadera and so on, until the youngest criadera is reached, where the base or ‘sobretablas’ wine from the latest vintage is employed to top it up. In short, each year, an amount of wine is removed from the oldest barrels, the solera, and the stack is refilled with the most recent wine, so