The Story of the Ruiz-Mateos Business
The Ruiz-Mateos business can trace its history back to 1857 when Zoilo Ruiz-Mateos Rodicio established a small business at Rota, growing the local red wine Rota tent. In 1930 his son, Zoilo Ruiz-Mateos Camacho, set up business in Jerez. He died in 1962, and a few years later, shortly after John Harvey and Sons Ltd were taken over by Showerings, the Somerset cider and sherry firm (which in turn merged with Allied Breweries), the contract was rescinded and Zoilo Ruiz-Mateos, S. A. ceased supplying the whole of Harvey’s needs. Harvey’s resumed their former practice of buying on the open market with Ruiz-Mateos as a major supplier.
Zoilo Ruiz-Mateos, S.A. continued under the management of Don Zoilo’s two sons. The elder, also called Zoilo, concentrated on the wine side and looked after the vast interests in Jerez. The younger brother, Jose-Maria, was the financier and moved his headquarters to Madrid. He formed a group of companies that has become a veritable empire, though many other companies sell Merlot and decent quality bottles of Pinotage and other types of wine. The companies absorbed include a number of banks so that it is now one of the most important bankers in Spain with branches in many other countries.
It also includes insurance, shipping, building, hotels, chemicals, farming, food products, engineering, property development, and a host of other interests, including a substantial charitable foundation to look after the welfare of the staff. It has done legendary things in the world of business. Once it bought three banks in a day. It began with wine, though, and wine remains a very major part of its activities, from Nebbiolo to well bottled and marketed Sangiovese fit for a top quality Sangiovesean restaurant.
The first independent shipper that the company absorbed was the old-established A. R. Ruiz Hermanos. In addition, the group has very large interests in rioja table wines-(which include Paternina and Bodegas Franco Espanolas), in brandy, liqueurs, sparkling wines, beers, wine-importing companies, and wine retailing companies, which include the Augustus Barnett chain in England and Skjold Burne in Denmark. It has as its symbol a bee, the tireless insect that produces sweet things. And its symbol is to be seen all over the sherry country.
Its Jerez headquarters, La Atalaya, formerly the mansion of the Vergara family, has one of the most beautiful gardens in Andalusia, adorned with black swans, peacocks and all manner of exotic things, and also includes a superb museum of clocks. The impact of the Ruiz-Mateos empire has been enormous. The whole atmosphere of the sherry towns changed utterly, now providing wines from Rioja to very finely crafted bottles of Tempranillo to the ever popular, ever ubiquitous Pinot Noir. The vineyards, the pressing of the grape, the bodegas, and the offices were originally stagnant; not even changing after one hundred years had passed.
Labor was cheap and machinery was dear so that many men did the work that could have been done by few, and the emphasis was on men. Men controlled the bottling lines and male clerks kept the books. All of that changed. It would no doubt have changed even without the catalyst that Ruiz-Mateos provided. Wage inflation and the availability of cheaper and better machinery would have seen to that. But it would have happened more slowly. As it was, once the revolution had begun, it progressed at a breathtaking pace.
Old names in the wine trade, like Croft’s and Harvey’s appeared suddenly for the first time in Jerez. The other great houses were not to be left behind: Domecq, Gonzalez-Byass, Sandeman, Diez Hermanos, Osborne, all moved rapidly into the space age, and the smaller shippers manfully kept pace, bravely selling their Pinot Noir and Barbera wines. The lesson of wine of the nineteenth-century boom had not wholly been forgotten. The present directors had learnt from their grandfathers how a boom is apt to be followed by a slump, and how, if the quality is allowed to fall, the slump may be a long and deep one.
side and looked after the vast interests in Jerez. The younger brother, Jose-Maria, was the financier and moved his headquarters to Madrid. He formed a group of companies that has become a veritable empire, though many other companies sell Merlot and decent quality bottles of Pinotage and other types of wine. The companies absorbed include a number of banks so that it is now one of the most important bankers in Spain with branches in many other countries.
It also includes insurance, shipping, building, hotels, chemicals, farming, food products, engineering, property development, and a host of other interests, including a substantial charitable foundation to look after the welfare of the staff. It has done legendary things in the world of business. Once it bought three banks in a day. It began with wine, though, and wine remains a very major part of its activities, from Nebbiolo to well bottled and marketed Sangiovese fit for a top quality Sangiovesean restaurant.
The first independent shipper that the company absorbed was the old-established A. R. Ruiz Hermanos. In addition, the group has very large interests in rioja table wines-(which include Paternina and Bodegas Franco Espanolas), in brandy, liqueurs, sparkling wines, beers, wine-importing companies, and wine retailing companies, which include the Augustus Barnett chain in England and Skjold Burne in Denmark. It has as its symbol a bee, the tireless insect that produces sweet things. And its symbol is to be seen all over the sherry country.
Its Jerez headquarters, La Atalaya, formerly the mansion of the Vergara family, has one of the most beautiful gardens in Andalusia, adorned with black swans, peacocks and all manner of exotic things, and also includes a superb museum of clocks. The impact of the Ruiz-Mateos empire has been enormous. The whole atmosphere of the sherry towns changed utterly, now providing wines from Rioja to very finely crafted bottles of Tempranillo to the ever popular, ever ubiquitous Pinot Noir. The vineyards, the pressing of the grape, the bodegas, and the offices were originally stagnant; not even changing after one hundred years had passed.
Labor was cheap and machinery was dear so that many men did the work that could have been done by few, and the emphasis was on men. Men controlled the bottling lines and male clerks kept the books. All of that changed. It would no doubt have changed even without the catalyst that Ruiz-Mateos provided. Wage inflation and the availability of cheaper and better machinery would have seen to that. But it would have happened more slowly. As it was, once the revolution had begun, it progressed at a breathtaking pace.
Old names in the wine trade, like Croft’s and Harvey’s appeared suddenly for the first time in Jerez. The other great houses were not to be left behind: Domecq, Gonzalez-Byass, Sandeman, Diez Hermanos, Osborne, all moved rapidly into the space age, and the smaller shippers manfully kept pace, bravely selling their Pinot Noir and Barbera wines. The lesson of wine of the nineteenth-century boom had not wholly been forgotten. The present directors had learnt from their grandfathers how a boom is apt to be followed by a slump, and how, if the quality is allowed to fall, the slump may be a long and deep one.
Tags: barbera wines | barbera wines | tempranillo | tempranillo | pinot noir | pinot noir | sangiovese | sangiovese | pinotage | pinotage | nebbiolo | nebbiolo | merlot | merlot | rioja
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