Pedrosa de Duero, March 1969.
Can a 15-year-old start a business?
Ask my father.
He will tell you that everything in this life is about effort and sacrifice, regardless of one's age.
But it's clear, the first step is always the hardest.
The year was 1969 and Carmelo was 15 years old,
A young man whose only world was Pedrosa de Duero, a small village in the Ribera del Duero region. Where the green shoots of spring and the golden leaves of autumn shaped the landscape, a place where winters were cold and summers scorching, life was simple, but demanding.
The working days began early, and it was not uncommon to see families of winegrowers in the fields right down to the last ray of sunshine. Carmelo comes from a humble family, like so many others in the region, having worked the land for generations.
His father, a robust man of few words, had learnt the art of viticulture of his own father, who in turn had inherited that knowledge from Carmelo's grandparents. It was wisdom passed down in an almost ritualistic way. For our family, wine was the fruit of the effort, patience and respect for the land. Ever since he was very little, Carmelo used to accompany his father to the fields.
His hands, although small, already knew the weight of the hoe and the roughness of the vine shoots. At eight years old, Carmelo could feel the tiredness that often marked their faces at the end of the day; he and his father shared a silent connection as they worked together, a complicity forged in the furrows of the earth.
However, Carmelo was different.
There was something about him that set him apart, a spark that went beyond the mere desire to carry on the family tradition. While other children his age dreamed of escaping the countryside and finding work in the city, he held a deep respect for the vines. But, at the same time, he had a different vision: I wanted to innovate, to find new ways of making his father's hard work easier. He was a curious boy, who was not satisfied with the way things had always been done. It was at the age of 15 that this restlessness began to take shape.
After years of watching his father and the other winegrowers in the village they gave their all on the pitches, Carmelo began to dream of introducing something new to his world, something that could lighten the arduous physical labour and, above all, improve his family's life.
He had heard of machines that could help till the land more efficiently, something unthinkable for most of the farmers in Pedrosa, who remained attached to their manual tools and physical strength.
So, with that characteristic tenacity of his, he set off on his first journey to Aranda de Duero, the nearest city...