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The History

IN THE YEAR OF 1631

New Spain

In 1631 a terrible maritime disaster occurred, when the fleet of New Spain, loaded with riches, left for Seville in the middle of the cyclone season.

In colonial times there was a trade route mechanism called the Fleet of the Indies, which from the 16th to the 18th centuries transported treasures from the viceroyalties in America to Spain such as gold, silver, precious stones, cocoa and more. These vessels left the port of Veracruz, Gulf of Mexico and reached the city of Seville.

So that no other country could do business with the Spanish colonies, trade was tightly controlled: by law only Spain could connect with them. This helped the Crown of Castile increase its wealth and become the richest Kingdom in Europe.

IN THE YEAR OF 1622

Bases in the Caribbean Sea

However, by 1622 this economic mechanism began to decline for various reasons. One of them was that the fleets were being affected by the storms and hurricanes of the Caribbean, and secondly by the pirates who coveted the precious metals of the New World.

This increased with the threat of other nations that managed to establish bases in the Caribbean Sea. Among them were England and Holland. The latter had a great influence on the loss of the ship in question.

To protect itself from possible attacks by pirates or fleets of enemy countries, Spain established that commercial trips between America and Seville had to be made in groups to protect each other.
In the case of New Spain, commercial vessels were escorted by two warships, almiranta and capitana. In 1630, the captain of a convoy of 23 boats was the galleon baptized Nuestra Señora del Juncal.

IN THE YEAR OF 1630

The old continent

On July 28, 1630, almost two months after the scheduled date for her departure, Nuestra Señora del Juncal left Cádiz for New Spain with the mission of carrying merchandise from the Old Continent that had to be sold and distributed in that colony. . However, the most important thing for the Crown and the merchants was the return trip, where they would take riches such as exotic fruits, natural dyes, cocoa, sugar and precious metals. In the galleon there were also generous quantities of Mexican red wine that It served to quench thirst and give all the crew members a good mood on their return journey.

By the 1570s, Mexican wine had achieved great importance in the viceroyalty, becoming a flourishing industry that, due to the ease of making wine in America, avoided the problems of transportation from Spain with its dangers, privateers, storms, which the wine would spoil, or that it would depend on the price in Spain.

HERNÁN CORTES

Crop promoter

Hernán Cortes, being governor of New Spain, was the great promoter of vine cultivation in the different states of the current Mexican Republic, but decades later the suspicion and uncertainty of Spanish producers of finding themselves out of the market due to the amount of Mexican wine production led them to to pressure the kings so that they would order the pause of new vine plantations and subsequently the eradication of the existing ones, leaving only small plantations authorized in the territory of the church to make consecrated wine.

Returning to the story, our Lady of Juncal was not the best choice to be the captain of the convoy. She was built in 1622 by the accountant Antonio de Ubilla with the purpose of being a merchant vessel and not a warship. In addition, her large size and weight of 660 tons made her a clumsy galleon and difficult to handle in the dangerous Caribbean waters.
Even so, the Galleon arrived in San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz on October 5, 1630, after just over two months of travel.

OCTOBER 1631

The ship left

Upon arriving in Mexico, the ships had to wait at least a year so that the merchants could sell their products and gather what they would take back to their homeland. However, a series of misfortunes delayed the departure of Nuestra Señora del Juncal. The threat of Dutch ships waging war with Spain caused the first delay. Then, one day before the estimated departure date, Miguel de Echazarreta, captain of the fleet, died. After overcoming these obstacles, they finally feared leaving because it was already October, a dangerous month in which they could be affected by hurricanes due to the extension of the season.

The authorities deliberated and finally the ship left Veracruz on October 14, 1631 heading to Havana, where they would meet with the Navy of the Guard of the Indies Fleet to return to Spain. But four days after setting sail, the bad weather began to affect them. Upon departure, the galleon was already in poor condition because it had water inlets that had not been repaired during her stay in Mexico.

THE DAY OF THE SHIPWRECK

She was carrying a treasure

It was also overloaded, because in addition to the crew of 300 people, it carried a treasure whose value is estimated at 4 billion dollars (79 billion pesos) consisting of silver coins and reals, cocoa, silk, leather, dyes. , wood, red wine and other precious metals.

The storms weakened the galleon and ended up flooding its holds. It was necessary to lighten the load and cut the mainmast, but they still failed to stay afloat. After 10 days of fighting, most of the merchant ships managed to return to land, but Nuestra Señora del Juncal was shipwrecked and lost on a rainy night off the coast of Campeche. The balance was 39 survivors who were noble and religious, the lucky ones, they were saved thanks to a small boat that was also in delicate condition.

HONORING HISTORY

Honoring history, we developed this wine with very special GALEON 1631 brand processes that offer the total appearance of a shipwreck wine among its unmatched organoleptic characteristics enhanced by its marine aging.

 

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