Derrick Neleman is founder and owner of Bodegas Neleman and named Most Inspiring Entrepreneur of the year. Together with his team of Spanish and Dutch wine enthusiasts, he works passionately on his mission to be as sustainable as possible: making the wine world a bit more beautiful. That is why Neleman wines are always organic, vegan friendly and climate neutral: they plant trees to compensate for CO2 emissions. They work with native grape varieties and try to preserve near-extinct grapes which is good for the biodiversity.
The winery is located in Casas del Rey, a region west of Valencia – Spain. The vineyards are located high up in the hills (up to 1000 meters) in Parque Natural de las Hoces del Cabriel, part of which has recently been included in the list of Unesco. The soil dates from the Cretaceous period, the oldest vines are 80 years old.
The winery has recently been renovated using crowdfunding and together with craftsmen from the village of Casas del Rey, a beautiful tasting room with brand store has been realized.
Neleman wines score high in international wine competitions, recently for example 95 points from Decanter for Neleman Bobal (Robusta) and Dutch wine writers such as Harold Hamersma, Onno Kleyn and Hubrecht Duiker also regularly give high scores, last year a 10- for price / quality for Just Fucking Good Wine white, the highest wine rating ever given in a Dutch newspaper). Neleman makes the labels for the wines together with young designers from countries such as Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain and the Netherlands, who are also praised on international design blogs. The designs make the Neleman brand contemporary and striking.