THE SPIRIT OF GENERATIONS

With unlimited commitment and loyalty

The human capital at TEMPOS Vega Sicilia is, undoubtedly, one of the bastions that impact its personality. There is a personal pride among its workers, many of whom were born on the estate itself, for having inherited the tradition and trade that their fathers, their grandfathers and even their great-grandfathers plied. Because there are cases where up to four generations have worked for the company, such as José Enrique, the master cooper, or his brother, Jesús María, who belong to the fourth generation of the family at Vega Sicilia; or Andrés Yáñez, Andresín, whose father worked on the estate for 60 years, and whose first job consisted of delivering the mail on horseback.

And the truth is that Vega Sicilia was, in former times, nearly a self-contained village where there was even a school and chapel. Where the workers, apart from carrying out the duties inherent to their jobs, lived with their families in the houses provided for that purpose, and which formed part of the estate's structure until quite recently.

This tradition of family continuity in the running of the winery, far from being a drawback for the group, has been shown to be a value per se, and each Vega Sicilia worker can be said to be proud of their trade, feeling part of the group, and with the privilege of working for one of the most prestigious winery firms in the world.

Yet if someone can feel proud of their relationship with the group, those are the clients. And with good reason: the group's sales system is by means of quotas being allocated as fairly as possible that Pablo Álvarez, the CEO of the winery, personally oversees.

There are barely 4,000 lucky people who can claim to have the privilege of purchasing directly from the winery, without having to go to a store or restaurant, that also increase the price of the wine as they are aware that it is a scarce commodity, where demand is triple the supply.

Being a Vega Sicilia client is like belonging to an exclusive club, where membership can only be passed down from parents to sons, or after remaining for years on the winery's long waiting list (over 3,000 applications), in the hope that some client leaves or spends more than two years without placing an order, in which case they are removed from the list and a new one is added. However, that is extremely difficult in any event, as the removal of clients from the list for not having made a purchase in two consecutive years barely accounts for 1% and in the majority of the older clients, their quota is passed down to their children, simply by notifying the change to the winery.

And if anyone is thinking that "recommendations" is an option for joining the list, the system is so strict that not even kings, prime ministers or ministers have altered the scrupulous distribution that is allocated year after year after assessing all the orders and carrying out the relevant distribution.