Sustainability and Quality
At Fontana, sustainability is not a separate programme from quality.
It is part of how we define quality and how we make every important decision, from the design of a vineyard to the price at which a wine can responsibly be sold.
Together with Península Vinicultores, we have spent years developing a more complete understanding of what sustainability means in wine. It includes the environmental impact of farming and production, but also the economic viability of vineyards, the conditions under which people work and the legal integrity of every product we place on the market. These dimensions are inseparable. Environmental practices that cannot be sustained economically will not endure; low prices achieved through unfair, opaque or unlawful practices are not sustainable at all.
This thinking is applied across the entire Fontana range. Mesta, for example, was created to be the most accessible wine that we believe can be produced honestly, legally and sustainably. Its price is not reached by working backwards from the cheapest possible market position, but through a continuous examination of where responsible wine production can legitimately begin: what a vineyard must yield, what growers and workers must be paid, what resources may reasonably be used and which standards cannot be compromised.
Water is central to this work. In dry, continental Spain, responsible viticulture cannot be reduced to the simplistic idea that irrigation is inherently good or bad. At Fontana, carefully controlled deficit irrigation is used where necessary to keep the vine functioning through the growing season, preserve natural acidity and support balanced ripening, varietal character and expression of place. The objective is not maximum yield, but the best relationship between water use, vineyard health, quality and economic viability.
Across the Fontana Estate, certified organic farming is combined with a wider approach we call Organic Plus. This includes precise water management, viable rather than excessive yields, protection of biodiversity, increasingly regenerative soil practices, responsible energy use, reduced inputs and packaging decisions based on their real environmental impact. We continually assess which measures create meaningful improvement and which merely produce attractive claims.
Fontana was the first winery in Spain to achieve certification under the Sustainable Wineries for Climate Protection standard. Our IFS and BRCGS certifications provide further independent assurance of food safety, quality management and traceability. Certifications matter because they establish verifiable standards, but they represent a foundation rather than the limit of our ambition.
Our objective is coherence: vineyards that remain healthy and productive, wines that are technically and organoleptically sound, products that comply fully with the law, and prices that allow every part of the chain to operate responsibly. This is how Fontana seeks to advance both sustainability and quality—not as abstract promises, but through better decisions, measured over the long term.