Futuro Viñador:
vineyards, landscape and people at the centre of wine

What Futuro Viñador is

It is a non-profit association of winegrowers from all over Spain. Its website dates its founding to January 2020; the press at the time gave February as the month of official incorporation. It grew out of the Club Matador Manifesto (2016), signed by around 150 people from the wine world at the initiative of Telmo Rodríguez, and the first Encuentro de Viticulturas held at Remelluri.

The founding document brought together 16 wineries, among them Zárate and Algueira in Galicia, Artuke, Ostatu and Remelluri in Rioja, Raventós i Blanc in Catalonia, 4 Kilos in Mallorca and Suertes del Marqués in the Canary Islands. Today its website lists almost twenty members, from Galicia to Mallorca and from Rioja to Jerez, with very different projects: from family wineries with many generations in their village to recent personal ventures.

What it stands for

Its website lists eleven aims, which come down to four ideas: preserving landscape and biodiversity through “quiet” viticulture; keeping family-run estates at a human scale, making wines true to their origin; promoting research, outreach and generational renewal; and improving how Spanish wine is perceived abroad.

It also talks about channelling wealth towards those who grow the vines, defending the diversity of the Peninsula’s varieties, landscapes and climates, and transparent management. In 2020 its president added a clear limit: they would not accept producers who do not control their own vineyards.

It is an approach to wine that overlaps with natural wine on the essentials — start with the vineyard — although, as you will see below, they are not the same thing.

How members are assessed: the SPG

The central tool is the Sistema Participativo de Garantía (SPG), a participatory guarantee system. It is not a certification: it is a mechanism recognised by IFOAM and the FAO that began as an alternative to certification in countries without auditing structures, and which today also serves advanced producers who already certify (as organic, for instance) but want to go further.

It currently contains 92 criteria: 10 minimum conditions for membership, 11 descriptive indicators about the winery and three impact areas — 41 for the vineyard, 14 for the winery and winemaking, and 16 socio-economic. Each winery fills in a questionnaire, receives a one-day visit and an individual report setting out strengths and areas for improvement; the combined results also help identify the group’s shared needs.

Although it is not the main aim, nothing prevents an SPG from being audited: the association’s timeline records an audit by Global Nature and the validation of the SPG.

What it does: workshops, landscape and a book

Its first public action took place in London, with two dinners alongside the Viñateros fair at Brat and Noble Rot, to show opinion-formers a different image of Spanish wine, less centred on big brands and low prices. Fieldwork followed: a grafting workshop held online in 2020 with Fernando Mora MW (the dry-stone-wall workshop in Ribeira Sacra was postponed because of the pandemic), and later “Viticultura y suelos vivos” (Viticulture and living soils) at Ostatu.

The latest workshop in its timeline is Volver al mosaico (“Back to the mosaic”), at the Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes (Alt Empordà): a meeting about a non-uniform landscape — vines, pasture, woodland and field margins — as a tool against climate change, wildfires and biodiversity loss. Speakers included the ecologist Fernando Valladares (CSIC) and the sommelier Josep Roca, who led a tasting of six wines plus one.

On the publishing side, it backed the Spanish edition of Buenas prácticas de poda (Good pruning practices) by François Dal (SICAVAC and BIVC), a manual on grapevine trunk diseases first published in 2008 and which reached its third French edition in 2022. The Spanish version has been revised and expanded by Julián Palacios and Bárbara Sebastián (Viticultura Viva) and Roc Gramona, with an appendix on Spain’s traditional vineyard systems.

Members explain it in their own words. Ostatu, for example, says that belonging to Futuro Viñador and to Subsierra — an association from the Sierra de Cantabria, in Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Alta — reaffirms an honest approach to viticulture built on ancestral practices, historic vineyards and old varieties.

What it is not: a label, a style or a synonym for natural wine

Three things are worth keeping apart. Futuro Viñador is not a certification or a brand that goes on the label: the SPG is a tool for improvement and transparency. Nor does it define a style: it groups wineries that work in very different ways. And it is not a natural wine association: natural wine still has no legal definition or official certification in the EU, and belonging to the group says nothing, on its own, about sulphites, yeasts or winery intervention.

Its value lies elsewhere: in its starting criteria (own or controlled vineyards, landscape, biodiversity, human scale) and in applying them collectively and measurably. For anyone who buys wine with the same order of priorities, it is a useful reference for knowing where a bottle comes from, though it is no substitute for asking the producer. Terroir Radical is not a member of Futuro Viñador; this article is an analysis based on public sources.

In the Valencian Community the association includes Celler del Roure (Moixent), which we mention in our guide to Terres dels Alforins. And if you want to know who is behind the bottles we do sell, see our producers section.

What comes next

As of 2 November 2026, its website announces I Paisajes en el tiempo, a special event in Barcelona with “more information soon” and no published date. It is also open to new members: it has a “Hacerse socio” (become a member) section and, in 2020, its president said they did not want to cap the number of members.

Frequently asked questions

Is Futuro Viñador a certification or a label?

No. It is a non-profit association that assesses itself through a participatory guarantee system (SPG), a tool for improvement and transparency that is neither a certification nor printed on the label.

How many wineries belong to it?

There were 16 in the 2020 founding document. Its website now lists almost twenty, and the exact number varies depending on which section you look at.

Who can become a member?

Its website has a “Hacerse socio” section. In 2020 its president said the group was open to new members and only excluded producers with no control over their vineyards; the current requirements are in the SPG, which sets 10 minimum conditions.

Is it the same as natural wine?

No. Futuro Viñador focuses on vineyards, landscape and people; natural wine is defined by what happens in the winery. The two can overlap, but belonging to the group does not guarantee a natural wine.

Sources (consulted on 2 November 2026)

1. Futuro Viñador — Quiénes somos — aims, members and timeline.
2. Futuro Viñador — SPG y auditoría externa — 92 criteria and how the SPG works.
3. Futuro Viñador — Taller Volver al mosaico — programme and speakers.
4. Futuro Viñador — Libro Buenas prácticas de poda — Spanish edition of François Dal’s book.
5. Bodeboca — Futuro viñador, la revolución silenciosa del viñedo español (Nacho Civera, 7 July 2020) — origins, 16 founding members and first activities.
6. Bodegas Ostatu — ¿Por qué en Ostatu formamos parte de Subsierra y Futuro Viñador? — a member’s view.