Emperador expands vineyard in Spain for brandy production

CEBU, Philippines - GrupoEmperador Spain S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Emperador, Inc., has signed an agreement to acquire 230 hectares of vineyard land in Toledo.  The land is adjacent to the Vinedos del Rio Tajo operated by Bodegas Las Copas, a 50 percent joint venture company between Emperador and González Byass.  The company intends to expand Vinedos del Rio Tajo, a vineyard beside River Tajo, the longest river in Iberian Peninsula. 

Jorge B. Domecq, managing director of Emperador Spain said, "Our beautiful vineyard in the valley of River Tajo is the largest vineyard in Spain that specializes in wine grapes for brandy distillation. The way this vineyard is built harmonizes with environmental sustainability.  By using state-of-the-art technology in vineyard operation and management, we hope to achieve a yield capacity of 30,000 kilos per hectare against an average yield of around 6,500 kilos by the vineyard industry in Spain.  This means that in every hectare of this vineyard land, we will be able to harvest five times more wine grapes.  This will very well support the raw material requirements for our brandy production."

Domecq added, "With this total integration in our brandy production, we are in the best position to continue making Emperador as the number one brandy in the world.  That gives us the capacity to expand our global market.  With Emperador Spain continuously looking out to acquire more vineyard land in Spain, we expect that our total vineyard property will reach close to 2,000 hectares by 2016." (FREEMAN)