A tanker truck full of wine – everyday business for José Antonio

José Antonio Reguero uses the short waiting time before loading to take a look at the adjacent vineyard. "Delicious! It'll be a good harvest!" he says. "Here in El Bierzo we have a good climate for wine, and the soil alongside the river Sil is excellent for the wine producers."

Countless tractors with grapes.

Generally, José heads for one of the co-operatives in El Bierzo to take on a load. He is accompanied by countless tractors with trailers, all overloaded with grapes and being used for the harvest. If he can arrange it, José likes to take the time and watch the grapes being separated from their stems by machine. "After that, the grapes are pressed and the mash is created," he explains. Finally, the juice is put into airtight stainless steel containers where fermentation takes place at a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. The finished wine is transported by drivers like José and his Actros. The tanker semitrailer has a capacity of 30,000 litres. His destination? France or Germany. He travels several thousand kilometres per week.

– José Antonio Reguera

25 years of experience.

José is an old hat at transporting wine: he's been in the business for 25 years. He is fully aware of the two greatest dangers: oxidisation and contamination. He opens the filler opening of the tank. Filling using a hose is always carried out from bottom to top. All the time, he takes meticulous care that the seal between the hose and the filler opening is hermetically sealed. That way, only an absolute minimum of oxygen can get into the tank. Then he climbs nimbly up the ladder onto the tanker: "I'm not frightened of heights," he says. When he reaches the top, he opens each tank lid and seals it properly again: the filling process is going on as it should do.

It's a matter of pride that José's tanker is sparkling clean at all times, outside and in. He works for Getrabier, where much emphasis is placed on following the cleaning process properly. "If you take the right hygienic precautions, you avoid all contamination and unpleasant smells," says José.

Delicious export success.

"For me, wine is something special that needs to be transported with lots of care," he says. "And the quality and popularity of unbottled wine rises from one year to the next." The export figures for unbottled Spanish wine of designated origin increased by an astounding 20 percent last year.

But not all of the harvest is exported abroad – in Spain too, these wines are becoming more popular. After his working week, José Antonio goes home and spends the evenings with his wife and his two children. They all like sitting on the sofa while he talks about work – generally with a good glass of wine from El Bierzo in his hand.

Photos and video: Begoña Tremps