Nadal turns to wine: he launches "El Tenista"

Rafael Nadal has unveiled El Tenista, an organic red made with Bodegas Juan Gil, the Jumilla (Murcia) winery founded in 1916 and now part of the Viñas Familia Gil group. The wine is a limited edition, costs around 60 euros and is already on sale in specialist wine shops. Nadal announced it on Instagram with photos and a video:

"Some projects give you a special kind of excitement, and this is one of them."

The grapes are Monastrell, the signature variety of the Jumilla appellation, from vines more than 50 years old planted at 750 meters above sea level and long at risk of being abandoned. Each vine yields just 700 grams of grapes, harvested by hand. The wine then spends 18 months in new French oak barriques. It is the first label from Dominio del Liftado, the project through which the Gil family, now in its fourth generation, has restored those vineyards.

Nadal, who retired in 2024 at 38 with 92 ATP titles, 22 of them Grand Slams, said he has been working with the Gils for some time:

"It makes me very happy to be part of this project and to learn from a family with so much experience."

Tennis makes its way into the bottle through the details. Liftado is the Spanish word for topspin, Nadal's trademark shot on clay. The label, on a white background, carries a mark that recalls a ball bouncing on the red clay.