The Ethical Wine & the Forgotten Grapes
Bodegas Gratias is the creation of four friends — two husband-and-wife couples of agronomists — Ana and Iván Gómez, and José and Silvia Araque. Born from a party in 2007 when a group of sommelier and oenologist friends decided to make a couple of barrels of wine from Iván's grandfather's old Bobal vineyard in Alborea, the project has grown into one of the most compelling natural wine stories in Castilla-La Mancha. Their mission is singular: to protect old vineyards and recover almost extinct indigenous varieties like Tardana and Pintaillo in a region whose wine industry was in decline. They farm ~10 hectares of bush-trained, dry-farmed, organically certified vines ranging from 30 to 100 years old, at altitudes between 400 and 800 metres, on clay-limestone and calcareous soils between the Cabriel and Júcar rivers. In the cellar, they work with minimal intervention — indigenous yeasts, tinajas (clay amphorae), old oak, stainless steel, and plastic vats — with most wines totaling only ~15ppm total sulfur. They have coined the concept of ethical wine: wine grown, produced, and marketed from a place of respect, honesty, happiness, and enthusiasm. With ~50,000 bottles per year, 80% exported to markets like the US, UK, and Brazil, Bodegas Gratias is proving that Manchuela — long overshadowed by bulk production — can produce wines of startling individuality, terroir transparency, and heartfelt purpose.
Four Friends & the Party That Started It All
The story of Bodegas Gratias begins not in a boardroom or a business plan, but at a party. In 2007, Ana and Iván Gómez — both agronomists and oenologists — got together with a group of sommelier and winemaker friends and decided, almost on a whim, to make a couple of barrels of wine. The grapes came from an old vineyard plot belonging to Iván's grandfather in the village of Alborea, in the heart of Manchuela. The result was astonishing — a wine of such honesty and character that it demanded to be repeated. After a year of reflection, Ana and Iván decided to continue their viticultural journey, producing their first commercial bottling: Gratias Maximas, which in time gave the winery its name. Behind the name lies a philosophy of gratitude — gratitude to the land, to the old vines, to the growers who maintained them, and to the indigenous varieties that were being uprooted in favour of more profitable, more international grapes.
The team soon expanded to include José Gómez — Ana's brother — and his wife Silvia Araque, creating a four-person family collective that would become the driving force of the project. All four are agronomists by training; Ana, Iván, and José also have extensive experience as winemakers and consultants across southeast Spain, with Iván having worked for Pepe Mendoza in Alicante and Celler del Roure in Valencia, and Ana having worked at Capçanes in Priorat and Heretat de Taverners in Valencia before establishing her own consultancy. Silvia, the ever-smiling face of the operation, handles social media and wine tourism, bringing warmth and accessibility to a project that could easily have remained purely technical. Together, they form a rare combination of scientific rigour, practical experience, and human warmth — a family business in the truest sense, where decisions are made around a table rather than in a conference room.
The early years were a balancing act. By 2015, they were producing around 8,000 bottles, but Ana and Iván still devoted 80% of their time to wine consultancy work. At this point, they made the crucial decision to change their workload and focus on the development of Gratias. They moved into an industrial estate in Casas Ibáñez (Albacete) — next door to a carpentry workshop and opposite a livestock feed plant — an unlikely setting for a winery, but one they transformed into a welcoming space with colourful labels and paper flowers made by Ana's mother. The bodega consists of a single building where stainless steel tanks stand side by side with plastic vats, barrels, vats of different sizes, and a tasting area. It is not a polished tourist destination; it is a working winery, and that authenticity is precisely its charm.
The defining moment of the Gratias story came in 2016, when they launched a crowdfunding campaign to save an old vineyard from being uprooted. Owned by Pepe, one of the growers they work with, the property had around 20 different grape varieties, including the rare Pintaillo plants that Gratias had used to make a few hundred bottles of their Arroba red wine. The initiative worked surprisingly well, gave them exposure on social media, and resulted in a red wine called ¿Y tú de quién eres? — a field blend made in the most traditional way possible, with plastic fermentation vats taken to the vineyard itself, where they tread a first layer of grapes to release the must and add the rest as whole bunches. "It's the wine that used to be made in the old days in most villages in this area," Ana points out. The campaign was not merely a marketing stunt; it was a genuine rescue mission, and its success confirmed that drinkers around the world were willing to support a project that put vineyard preservation ahead of profit.
"Siempre seremos frikis del vino."
— Bodegas Gratias
Manchuela & the Rivers That Connect
Manchuela is a wine region nestled between the Júcar and Cabriel rivers, in the eastern end of Castilla-La Mancha, just 100 kilometres from Valencia along the road to Albacete. It is a region of distinctive Mediterranean character — hot summers, cold winters, and a landscape where vines mix with pine trees and small mountains. For decades, Manchuela's reputation was dominated by bulk production, cooperative wineries, and the gradual abandonment of old vineyards in favour of more mechanised, more profitable crops. Bodegas Gratias stands as a compelling counter-narrative: a small, family-run winery proving that this region, with its ancient bush vines and indigenous varieties, can produce wines of startling originality and honest expression. The Cabriel river, which forms a natural border with the region of Valencia, shapes the landscape into two distinct viticultural zones that give the Gratias portfolio its diversity.
The high plateau, at approximately 800 metres above sea level, fits the traditional idea of Manchuela as an elevated, windswept area. Here, conditions are cooler, ripening is challenging, and the Bobal vines — goblet-trained, dry-farmed, untilled — produce grapes of intense concentration and firm acidity. The soils are mostly clay-limestone, but as Iván explains, "the area is mostly clay-limestone, but limestone soils are dominant in the proximity of the river; as you move further away, the soils turn reddish, with a higher iron content." The river depression, where altitude drops sharply to around 400 metres, features smaller plots adapted to rugged terrain. Here, in Villatoya, conditions are ideal for late-ripening grapes like Tardana, and the soils are whiter, more calcareous, more chalky — soils that force vines to struggle and produce small berries with thick skins and mineral intensity. The river, in Iván's words, "connects rather than divides" — especially as far as varieties and soils are concerned.
The Gratias team works approximately 10 hectares of vines, half of which they own and half of which are tiny parcels owned by local farmers with whom they collaborate year-round. The vines range from 30 to 100 years old, all bush-trained, all dry-farmed, all untilled. The farming is certified organic (ICEA Biodynamic) and conducted with the utmost respect for the environment. There is no irrigation; the vines send their roots deep into the clay-limestone subsoil to find water and nutrients. The grass is left to grow between the rows. The fruit trees — almond, olive, and others — are maintained within and around the vineyards to support biodiversity and avoid monoculture. The goal is not merely sustainable farming but regenerative viticulture: to restore life to soils that have been depleted by decades of chemical-dependent agriculture, and to prove that the old ways — bush vines, dry farming, hand harvesting — are not relics of the past but the key to the future.
The varieties are all indigenous — a deliberate and passionate rejection of the international grapes that have colonised so much of Spanish viticulture. Bobal is the dominant red variety, the soul of Manchuela, historically used for bulk wine and blending but now recognised — thanks to projects like Gratias — as a variety capable of producing wines of extraordinary depth, freshness, and savoury complexity when handled with care. Tardana — also known as Planta Nova — is a white variety that was used in the past to produce Mistela and sold as table grape when Moscatel was not available. It is neutral with restrained aromas, late-ripening, and capable of producing wines of startling minerality and chalky freshness when grown on limestone soils. Pintaillo — easily recognisable thanks to its mottled skin — is a nearly extinct red variety that ripens later than Bobal, produces light-coloured wine with good acidity, light structure, and abundant herbal aromas. Gratias has managed to farm four out of five remaining Tardana old vineyards in Villatoya and has selected pruning wood to plant a small plot of Pintaillo as a means to continue its recovery. Other varieties in their field blends include Macabeo, Marisancho, Doña Blanca, Albillo, Blanquilla, Coloraillo, Macabeo Negro, Teta de Vaca, Pedro Juan, Moravia Agria, Moravia Dulce, Cegivera, Rojal, and Valencia — a living archive of Manchuela's viticultural heritage.
Bodegas Gratias is located in Casas Ibáñez, Albacete, in the Manchuela region of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain — between the Júcar and Cabriel rivers, ~100km from Valencia. Founded in 2007 by four friends (two couples of agronomists). Certified organic (ICEA Biodynamic). ~10 hectares of bush-trained, dry-farmed vines, 30–100 years old. A benchmark for ethical, natural, indigenous-varietal wine in southeast Spain.
The vineyards sit on clay-limestone and calcareous soils at two distinct altitudes: the high plateau (~800m, reddish iron-rich clay-limestone, Bobal) and the river depression (~400m, white calcareous/chalky soils, Tardana). Fine-textured, draining, poor in organic matter — classic Mediterranean viticultural soils that force vines to struggle, producing small berries with thick skins and concentrated flavours. The calcareous component provides mineral backbone and chalky freshness.
Certified ICEA Biodynamic. All vines are bush-trained, dry-farmed, and untilled. No irrigation. Grass left between rows. Fruit trees and olive trees maintained in the vineyards. Collaboration with local growers to preserve old parcels. The goal is regenerative viticulture — living soils, not sterilised dirt. Hand-harvested into small boxes. Minimal intervention in the cellar: indigenous yeasts, tinajas, old oak, stainless steel, plastic vats.
In 2016, Gratias launched a crowdfunding campaign to save an old vineyard with 20+ varieties from being uprooted. The success gave them exposure and resulted in the ¿Y tú de quién eres? field blend. They have since farmed four of the five remaining Tardana old vineyards in Villatoya and selected pruning wood to plant a new Pintaillo plot. This is not merely winemaking; it is viticultural archaeology and active preservation.
Ethical Wine & the Clay Amphora
The guiding philosophy of Bodegas Gratias is summed up in two words they coined themselves: ethical wine. This is defined as wine that is cultivated, produced, and sold with the utmost respect, honesty, happiness, and hope of all those who work with it, as well as by those who consume it. It is not merely a marketing slogan; it is a comprehensive ethical framework that governs every decision from the vineyard to the bottle. The wines are artisanal and as natural as they come: organically grown, fermented with naturally occurring yeasts, and with hardly any added sulphites — most wines total only around 15ppm total sulfur, and some carry none at all. There are no commercial inoculations, no enzymatic corrections, no chaptalisation, no acidification. The goal is to express the natural personality and potential of the grape, the soil, and the vintage — to let Manchuela speak through the bottle without disguise or manipulation.
The cellar is a working space in an industrial estate in Casas Ibáñez — a single building where stainless steel tanks stand side by side with plastic vats, barrels of different sizes, and, most distinctively, tinajas — traditional Spanish clay amphorae that have become a signature of the Gratias style. According to Ana, uncoated, porous clay vessels work very well with Bobal, as this variety benefits from some extra oxygenation. In terms of whites, clay is best adapted to skin-contact orange wines like Terra. For Sol, clay is used very briefly to finish fermentation and achieve a slight micro-oxygenation. The tinajas are not decorative objects; they are functional tools that allow for gentle, slow fermentation and ageing, preserving the fruit's purity while adding a subtle earthy, mineral dimension that stainless steel cannot provide.
The winemaking varies by wine and by variety, but the common thread is minimal intervention and respect for tradition. For the ¿Y tú de quién eres? red, plastic fermentation vats are taken to the vineyard itself, where the grapes are treaded to release the must and whole bunches are added — a method Ana describes as "the wine that used to be made in the old days in most villages in this area." For the Terra orange wine, Tardana grapes are given skin-contact fermentation in tinaja, producing a hazy, textured, deeply mineral wine. For Sol, the Tardana is fermented at low temperature in large tanks, with one-third moved to tinaja for three months on its lees, achieving a slight micro-oxygenation and added complexity. For Got, the Bobal is given 48 hours of maceration at 8°C, then fermented in small tanks, with malolactic in stainless steel and four months on lees in tinaja. For the Rosé, Bobal is given eight hours of maceration, fermented at low temperature, and finished in old oak barrels with three months on lees. Each wine is a different answer to the same question: how do we make Manchuela taste like itself?
The singular wines — the Soy range — represent the most personal, most limited expressions of the estate. Soy itself comes from the original grandfather's vineyard in Alborea, the seed from which Gratias grew. It is fermented in plastic vats, undergoes malolactic fermentation, and spends six months in seasoned oak — a wine of deep, ferrous soils, ripe and earthy yet finely textured. Soy Caliza is a Bobal from calcareous soils, expressing the white, chalky, mineral character of the limestone vineyards. Soy Arena is a Bobal from sandy soils — an unusual, almost aerial red with fine tannins, lovely juicy acidity, and a savoury finish, completely opposite in character to Soy despite sharing the same alcohol content. These wines are bottled without added sulphites and carry symbols instead of labels — an infinite symbol for Soy, the letter "A" for Arena — reflecting the team's belief that the wine should speak for itself, without the distraction of elaborate branding. The cellar is not a factory; it is a workshop where four friends use steel, wood, clay, and plastic to coax the truth out of ancient vines.
Indigenous Yeasts, Tinajas & Minimal Sulfur
The guiding principle of Gratias winemaking is that the wine should be a pure reflection of the grape, the soil, and the vintage — not a product of the laboratory or a cosmetic imitation of a commercial style. Their approach — hand-harvesting into small boxes, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, gravity settling, no fining, no filtration, and minimal or zero added sulfur — is not a rejection of their technical background but a deeper application of it. They know enough about oenology to know when to do nothing. The tinajas provide gentle micro-oxygenation. The old oak adds structure without masking flavour. The stainless steel preserves freshness. The plastic vats allow for honest, unadorned fermentation. Each vessel is a tool, and each wine is a different combination of tools, all aimed at the same goal: to let Manchuela speak in its own voice, through its own grapes, with its own accent.
The Regular Line & the Singular Wines
Bodegas Gratias produces a diverse and authentic portfolio from their biodynamically farmed vineyards in Manchuela, divided into the core range — wines that define the estate's identity and mission — and the Singular Wines — very limited, often experimental expressions that capture specific parcels, specific soils, or specific creative impulses. All wines are hand-harvested into small boxes, spontaneously fermented with indigenous yeasts, and bottled with minimal or zero added sulfur. The core range offers pure, precise expressions of Bobal and Tardana — the two great indigenous varieties of Manchuela — along with orange wines, rosés, and pet-nats that demonstrate the full range of the region's capabilities. The Singular Wines — the Soy range — offer soil-specific, no-sulfur-added expressions that push the boundaries of what Bobal can achieve when sourced from different terroirs. The portfolio spans white, orange, red, rosé, and sparkling — all united by a common character of biodynamic purity, spontaneous fermentation, and the unmistakable signature of four friends who have made it their life's work to save old vineyards and recover forgotten grapes. The following represents the core cuvées as they have emerged from Gratias's years of passionate, conviction-driven winemaking in Casas Ibáñez.
"Siempre seremos frikis del vino. Ven a conocernos, cata nuestros vinos y camina entre las viñas. Te abrimos las puertas con una copa en la mano."
— Bodegas Gratias
The Ethical Wine & the Four Friends
To understand Bodegas Gratias, one must understand that it is not merely a winery; it is a friendship made liquid, a family made vineyard, and a mission made wine. The four people behind the project — Ana and Iván Gómez, José and Silvia Araque — are not business partners; they are two couples of agronomists who decided to make wine together because they believed in the same things: respect for the land, honesty in the cellar, happiness in the work, and enthusiasm in every bottle. Ana and José are siblings. Iván fell in love with wine working for Pepe Mendoza in Alicante. Ana had her epiphany at Capçanes in Priorat. Silvia brings the warmth and the welcome. Together, they have created something rare in the wine world: a project where the personal and the professional are inseparable, where decisions are made by consensus rather than hierarchy, and where the goal is not merely to sell wine but to preserve a way of life.
The identity is defined by the concept of ethical wine — a term they coined to describe a wine that is grown, produced, and marketed from a place of respect, honesty, happiness, and enthusiasm. This is not a certification; it is a philosophy. It means that the growers they work with are paid fairly and treated as partners rather than suppliers. It means that the crowdfunding campaigns are genuine rescue missions, not marketing stunts. It means that the labels are colourful and playful because wine should be joyful, not intimidating. It means that the winery is in an industrial estate next to a carpentry workshop because authenticity matters more than aesthetics. It means that the paper flowers at the entrance are made by Ana's mother because family is part of the business. It means that the wines are sold without geographic designations because the region's bureaucratic structures do not reflect the reality of their vineyards. And it means that the wines are as natural as they come — organically grown, spontaneously fermented, with minimal or zero sulfur — because the earth deserves nothing less.
The future of Gratias is tied to the continued health of their biodynamic vineyards, the deepening of their relationships with the local growers who own the old parcels they work, and the gradual evolution of a portfolio that now speaks to both the natural wine enthusiast and the curious drinker who has never heard of Manchuela. The Sol and Terra will continue to be the Tardana flagships — wines that prove this almost-extinct variety can achieve world-class expression when farmed with care and vinified with honesty. The Got and Tinaja will continue to prove that Bobal is not merely a bulk-wine grape but a variety of extraordinary depth and versatility. The Soy range will continue to explore the soil-specific expressions of Bobal — from deep ferric soils to white limestone to sandy ground. The ¿Y tú de quién eres? range will continue to be the heart of the project — the wines that literally saved vineyards from the bulldozer. And the Comboi will continue to capture the joyful, celebratory side of a project that is serious about its craft but refuses to take itself too seriously. The old vines will continue to be hand-pruned, the grass will continue to grow between the rows, the indigenous yeasts will continue to ferment in the cool darkness of tinajas and tanks, and the four friends will continue to meet around a table in Casas Ibáñez, tasting, talking, and planning the next rescue.
In an age of increasing industrialisation in wine — of global varieties, engineered yeasts, and corporate consolidation — Bodegas Gratias stands as a compelling alternative, not because they reject modernity but because they have embraced a deeper modernity: one that values friendship over profit, a crowdfunding campaign over a marketing budget, an old vineyard over a new plantation, biodynamic farming over chemical dependence, indigenous varieties over international imports, bush vines over trellising, dry farming over irrigation, hand-harvesting over mechanisation, spontaneous fermentation over inoculation, tinajas over new oak, minimal sulfur over standardised stability, the field blend over the single varietal, the ethical wine over the luxury cuvée, and the specific voice of Manchuela's clay-limestone soils over the standardised replication of a global style. Bodegas Gratias is not merely making wine; they are proving that four friends can change a region, that a party can become a purpose, that a crowdfunding campaign can save a vineyard, that 8,000 bottles can become 50,000 without losing their soul, that Manchuela can produce natural wine as honest as anything from the Jura or the Loire, and that the simplest philosophy — grow, produce, and sell with respect, honesty, happiness, and enthusiasm — is often the most profound. From the party in 2007 to the crowdfunding campaign of 2016, from the grandfather's vineyard in Alborea to the industrial estate in Casas Ibáñez, from the first barrel to the fiftieth thousand bottles: all united in one bottle, one friendship, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of ethical, biodynamic, hand-made, minimal-sulfur, passionately honest wine from the heart of Castilla-La Mancha.
Ana and Iván Gómez, José and Silvia Araque — two couples of agronomists, with Ana and José as siblings. They are not business partners; they are family. Decisions are made around a table, not in a boardroom. The paper flowers at the entrance are made by Ana's mother. The crowdfunding campaigns are genuine rescue missions. The industrial estate location is chosen for function, not glamour. This is a winery where the personal and professional are inseparable, and the result is a portfolio that carries the quiet signature of four people who answer only to themselves, their growers, and their vines.
Gratias coined the term "ethical wine" to describe a wine grown, produced, and sold with respect, honesty, happiness, and enthusiasm. The 2016 crowdfunding campaign to save Pepe's old vineyard was not a marketing stunt but a genuine rescue mission that resulted in the ¿Y tú de quién eres? field blend. They have since farmed four of the five remaining Tardana old vineyards in Villatoya and planted a new Pintaillo plot from selected pruning wood. This is viticultural archaeology with a conscience — and the wine is all the better for it.