On the 8th of March, we celebrate International Women’s Day

Here are the stories of 3 women of Castell d’Or who, each one in her own way, have broken the pattern and contributed a lot into the development of this company.

Cristina Martínez. Bottling line manager

She has been working at the plant situated in Vila-Rodona since 2017. For these 6 years, she experienced fast professional growth: now she oversees all the processes of cava elaboration: from the distribution of tirage liquor to the base wine to the of packaging of the final product.  She is responsible for that the cava of Castell d’Or meet all the quality standards. Cristina recognized that at the beginning it was hard for her to prove to her male colleagues that she can manipulate heavy machinery the same way they do. She says, when she started to work at the production line, she was the only woman and her team talked about having a woman working with them as a joke. But in a few years, the situation changed, more women have come and the job was not considered to be masculine any more. “I have always fought for equality and to show that women can carry out the same tasks as men, also in the logistics part”, says Cristina. She recalls that at the beginning, her well-meaning male colleagues kept her from doing hard physically but in the end, these actions, done with good intentions, limited her work. “I decided to learn to do everything myself whatever it takes” – explains Cristina. Now, she proudly leads a team made up entirely of women – they work in the new packaging line of the plant located in Vila-Rodona.

Dolors Roca Puig, a member of the cooperative cellar that enters Castell d’Or Group

Dolors Roca Puig dedicated to the vine agriculture 25 years of her life – this is in her genes now. She had a special interest in viticulture since childhood when she was working in the vineyard together with her father and sister. The colors, textures and sounds of the countryside attracted her. Little by little she learnt to understand the vineyard, the land, and her cycles. “I remember, every day after school I was going to the family vineyard to help, so my knowledge about how to treat the vine and my admiration for it came very gradually and naturally”.

“At one point I understood that I enjoy working in the field, it was like vacation for me”, – explains Dolors. – Driving my tractor along the vine lines I was in direct contact with plants, land, nature… it was really exciting!” Currently, her passion results in 60 hectares of vineyards and 30 hectares of other plantations: cereals, olive and fruit trees. Dolors coordinates all the derived tasks and controls all the small details of each phase of the vine and tree development cycle. “I like everything where I can be in contact with nature, like trellising, pruning, harvesting the grapes… what I do not like is the paperwork, administrative tasks…“, explains she. Nevertheless, during these years she was not only improving the quality of the product but modernizing and professionalizing her whole business.

Mercè Pujals- Export Manager

Mercè Pujals has been working in wine export for more than 30 years. She was one of the founders of Castell d’Or in 2006, one of the inspirators of the union of different cooperatives under one name with a common purpose, a witness of the growth and evolution of the company.  All these years she has travelled around the world introducing the products of the Castell d’Or group to new markets. Her destinations were Japan, the United States of America, Canada, different countries in South America and of course, European countries such as Belgium, Germany or Great Britain.

Pujals is proud of how the Castell d’Or project has grown to become one of the most important production companies in all of Spain. “It is true that there were very hard moments at the beginning to the point of wondering if I had done the right thing to dedicate myself to this task, but looking back I recognize that I have made very good friends and I have enjoyed this journey very much, and this is something not everybody can say about himself,”  – says Mercè.

On International Women’s Day, in Castell d’Or we want to highlight the key role that women play in the wine business and stress the importance of equal representation and evaluation of all the genders in this sector.