Practising organic vine-growing is almost second nature to Jumilla growers. As one of the driest wine regions in Spain (less than 300mm a year), Jumilla is largely spared the fungal diseases that threaten the vines in many rainier appellations. Spray treatments are seldom necessary if at all, and eco-friendly practices are widespread.

The general move towards pesticide and herbicide use introduced a generation ago never really got off the ground in Jumilla, since its growers could manage perfectly well with their traditional time-honoured methods. By the time the use of chemicals had been discouraged, it seemed unnecessary for Jumilla producers to suddenly promote their wines as organic, since that was what they’d always been.

Today, in order to send a clear message to consumers of their wines, a large proportion of Jumilla wineries have gained organic certification for their products and advertise this on their labels. Currently, over half of the wines produced in Jumilla have organic certification, while 80% of its wineries sell at least a proportion of organically-certified wines. A growing number of wineries only sell organically-certified wines. In 2018, some 10 million bottles of these wines (a third of the total production) were produced in the Jumilla appellation.

These figures however don’t totally reflect the extent of organic production in the region, since many growers practise organic viticulture without ever having applied for certification. It is estimated that 75% of the Jumilla appellation practises organic growing, and this figure reaches 100% in the municipality of Jumilla, in Murcia province.

In sending this clear message to international markets, Jumilla has responded dynamically to the demands of such countries as Germany, the UK, the United States and Canada, where the demand for eco-friendly wine is constantly increasing. Jumilla has thus fast become one of the leading producers of certified organic wine in Spain.