I'm Blanca María Serrano Serrano, the main character of this story. This adventure began in 1984 when I was 8 years old and stepped on the grapes my father Marcelino had in his vineyard with my wellies. The years went by and then my father Marcelino again set up a small 0.75 hectare vineyard with 30 different grapevine varieties. These vineyards began to grow and develop, and each year produced more grapes. And so we bought a small de-stemmer/crusher and a small vertical stainless steel press. We pressed the marc in the vertical press and that way we were able to produce a little more wine. The following year, we bought two stainless steel tanks and a small pump to rack the wine. And we did all this on the ground floor of our family home. I helped my father Marcelino make the wines during August and September. In October, he would go back to university to continue studying. And so every season, we added something new to improve the wine-making process. I was getting 'itchier' every year with all the hustle and bustle in the house. So I thought to myself, 'I like this, I'm going to study oenology,' and that is how I ended up going to the University of Córdoba to do a Bachelor's degree in Oenology. When I finished, I went back to work with my father in our small and half-equipped little winery. We extended the facilities by building a new warehouse to ferment and store the wines, and invested in stainless steel tanks, barrels and machinery to improve the wine-making processes. In 2017, we started our new organic vineyard plantation. In the future, and with your help, we would like to buy more land and extend our organic vineyard. My father Marcelino Serrano, Laura Calvo Sánchez and I work on the farm every day. My father is retired and helps me with all the tasks in the winery and the vineyards. The tasks change depending on the time of year. August, September and October is when we produce the wines and pick the grapes. The grapes are handpicked, and we hire 6 people for the three months of the harvest season. In December we begin pruning our grapevines. My father and I do this job, and we love it because it is very relaxing. The pruning process is very important because the way you do it determines what your future harvest will be, so long as there are no setbacks due to inclement weather. Meanwhile, my colleague Laura works in the office we have in Alcalá la Real. We sell wine there, and also manage orders, accounting, quality control and customer service. CrowdFarming is a great opportunity for you to get to know us and see first-hand what we do, where the product comes from, how we make it, how we look after our vineyards, and see what actually happens to the product that comes out of our winery. It also gives you the chance to meet the people behind everything - a father and daughter who are passionate about what they do: recovering a forgotten wine heritage.

Our farm is located in Las Casas de Joya, near Mures, a small town belonging to the municipality of Alcalá la Real. It has a total area of 3.63 hectares, in which we produce organically farmed vineyards with the red Graciano, Merlot and Syrah varieties and the white Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer varieties. The plot also has forest land with holm oak trees and Mediterranean aromatic plants, such as thyme and rosemary. There is also a stream, where during the rainy season the water flows down. In the surroundings of our farm there is a sheep farm and an almond plantation. Mostly, it is a quiet farming area, where you can enjoy peace and relaxation. The main economic activity in the region is olive growing for bulk oil production. However, complementary activities such as wine-growing are needed to diversify the workforce and counter the impact of the temporary nature of olive tree seasons. About 560 hours of work per hectare per year go into cultivating our organic grapevines, in complementary seasons to the olive groves. In Mures, everyone knows 'arrañales' soils are best for growing grapes. That is why we bought this plot in 2002; so that we could have enough production to make my father's dream of starting his own winery possible. As I mentioned, our vineyard is dry-farmed, however we do have a back-up irrigation system to prevent the plants from dying in times of extreme drought. The water is extracted from two wells on the plot, and we use a sub-surface drip-based irrigation system. With the help of solar energy, coming from solar panels that we installed on the farm, we extract the water. This extra irrigation is essential in the early stages of plant development. After 10 years, the fully grown plant needs less water, because its root system learns how to search the subsoil for the nutrients. After the winter is when the weeds begin to grow, which we manage with brush cutters, leaving a spontaneous crop cover that favours the structure of the soil. This allows us to prevent erosion and make better use of the rain during spring. Leaving spontaneous crop cover also promotes the biodiversity of natural plant species. The project involves my father, Marcelino (who helps me in the entire production process of making the wine and looking after the vineyard), an administrative assistant who works in the office in our town, Alcalá la Real, and me, the company manager. We also hire field workers for the busier seasons to help with the workload. This team has been with us since 2017. All workers have an employment contract and receive their corresponding wages as agreed in their contracts. We provide all the facilities they need in accordance with legislation, and we always adapt to their needs. The residue or by-products of the wine-making process, the lees and marc, are dealt with as follows: I am required by law to take the lees to a distiller. We store the lees in 25-litre jugs at the end of the season and take them to a distillery in Castilla la Mancha. The marc obtained after pressing the grape vines is left to dry. We then sift and collect the pips, which we keep in bags for recycling and put in the boiler to heat the family home. When we prune the vineyards, we chop the pruning remains from the branches and incorporate them into the soil as organic matter. We do a lot of wine tourism at our winery. The tastings and tours are hosted by my father Marcelino and me. He helps me with the tour and serves the wines for the tasting session. We recommend you organise a holiday to visit us, enjoy our wine tasting and pairing sessions, stroll through the vineyards and explore our beautiful town, Alcalá la Real, which has a wine-making past.