The scheme is closed for the time being, as it was a total success. I found sponsors for 7 casks and I have already bought them, and filled them with wine. Depending on my circumstances, I may do it again if I need more casks.
At the time of writing/updating this article (July 2013) 4 barrels are still full of wine, and three have been botttled.
Of the 7 barrels, six were originally full of Tempranillo, but one of the sponsors expressed an interest in creating his own blend. So one day he came to the bodega and we tasted all the wines available and we played at 'Coupage'! In the end this is what he came up with: A blend called "Five on the Dot" (in Spanish "Las Cinco en Punto"), because it has five varieties in it:
- 80% Tempranillo
- 5% Garnacha
- 5% Sirah
- 5% Petit Verdot
- 5% Airén
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Original text of the Oak Barrel Sponsoring Scheme
In 2010 I launched a new way for consumers to participate more closely in the wine-making process. By 'new' I mean new for me, as like most things, this has probably been done before somewhere by someone!
The idea is that a consumer (or group of consumers) finance the purchase of a new oak cask (around €300) and get paid back in bottles of wine.
Last year, because it was such a small harvest, I only had enough wine to fill one (1) additional cask, but this year I intend to buy a lot more. The financing of last year's cask was 'awarded' to a friend (and notorious long-time consumer of our wines), as we'd been talking about doing this for years!
The first two casks
The third cask
These were the terms and conditions:
The fundamental reason or motive for financicng the casks in collaboration with our consumers is not economic or financial in nature, but it is intended to be a way of facilitating consumer participation in the project, of establishing closer relations between producer and consumers, and of exchanging information.
There are no interest payments nor any other type of economic or financial incentive as the idea here is not obtain profits from an investment. Its simply another way of participating, just like helping out at the harvest or pruning or washing bottles. It is assumed that the person financing the cask in this way is doing so in order to participate in the wine-making process and to support the project in general.
We have tried to make it as simple as possible and the same for all the future participants, so as to reduce complications and 'administrative overheads' when there are many participants.
1. The cost of the cask is repaid exclusively in bottles of wine (the participant(s) can choose if they want the very wine produced in the cask, or any other type of wine produced by Vinos Ambiz, if and when available)
2. The bottle of wine is valued at the price set at the beginning of each year
3. The participant(s) can choose if they want to receive the bottles of wine in a single lot or if they want to spread them out over the lifetime of the cask
4. The participants, like all our consumers, can come to the winery to help out with any activity involving their cask (filling, racking, washing, etc)
5. The old cask belongs to the particiapants. If they don't want it when it's no longer any use for aging wine, we'll keep it at the winery and use it for something
