Dehesa de los Canónigos Chief Executive Dies in Crash That Killed Four Family Members

Four members of a family from Valladolid, including Iván Sanz Cid, the chief executive of the Ribera del Duero winery Dehesa de los Canónigos, were killed Sunday in a traffic accident on the A-67 highway near Herrera de Pisuerga, in the province of Palencia, according to Spain’s central government delegation in Castilla y León. A 9-year-old girl, the family’s only surviving child, was seriously injured and flown by medical helicopter to the Burgos University Hospital complex.

Authorities said the crash happened at about 4:20 p.m. at kilometer 83 of the A-67, when emergency services received a call reporting that a vehicle had left the roadway and rolled several times, trapping four people inside. No other vehicles were involved, according to the government subdelegation in Palencia.

Those killed were identified by Spanish media and wine industry sources as Mr. Sanz; his wife, Irene Garijo; and two of their children, ages 14 and 17. The family was believed to be returning to Valladolid from Cantabria when the accident occurred.

The Guardia Civil’s traffic division is investigating the cause of the crash. The leading hypothesis is that the driver may have fallen asleep, according to the Palencia government subdelegation, which cited witness accounts. Traffic officers, firefighters from the provincial council of Palencia and emergency medical teams from Sacyl, the regional health service, responded to the scene. Spain’s traffic authority said the accident led to the closure of the left lane at kilometer 83 in the decreasing-mile direction.

The deaths sent shock waves through Spain’s wine sector, especially in Castilla y León and the Ribera del Duero appellation, where Dehesa de los Canónigos is one of the best-known family wineries. The estate, based in Pesquera de Duero in Valladolid province, has long been associated with the region’s so-called Golden Mile, a stretch of prestigious vineyards and wineries along the Duero River.

Dehesa de los Canónigos acknowledged the tragedy in a message posted on X, thanking people for their condolences and saying details about funeral arrangements would be shared when possible. Messages of sympathy from wineries, growers and industry figures spread quickly across social media on Sunday as news of the crash became public.

Mr. Sanz belonged to the second generation of the family behind Dehesa de los Canónigos. He ran the winery as chief executive alongside his sister Belén Sanz Cid, who oversees technical direction and winemaking. Their leadership followed the death in May 2025 of their father, Luis Sanz Busto, who founded and built the winery with María Luz Cid and became a respected figure in Ribera del Duero.

Trained as an agricultural technical engineer and also educated in business management, Mr. Sanz represented a generation of family wine producers that combined vineyard knowledge with export ambition. People familiar with his work described him as discreet and closely tied to the land. His time in the United States helped shape an international outlook that expanded Dehesa de los Canónigos into more than 20 countries.

The winery traces its roots to a historic estate acquired by the Cid family in 1931. It developed into a modern wine project in the late 1980s under Luis Sanz Busto and María Luz Cid, with an emphasis on estate-grown fruit and vineyard-first production. That approach became central to its identity in Ribera del Duero, one of Spain’s most competitive red wine regions.

For many in Castilla y León, Mr. Sanz’s death carries both personal and symbolic weight. It comes little more than a year after the death of his father and removes one of the figures seen as responsible for carrying a prominent family winery into its next phase. In a region where wine is deeply tied to local identity, land ownership and rural employment, such losses resonate beyond one company.

Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, the president of Castilla y León, said on social media that he was “deeply distressed” by what he called a tragic accident. He offered condolences to relatives and friends of the family and said he hoped for the recovery of the injured girl.

By Sunday night, grief had spread well beyond Palencia and Valladolid. In Ribera del Duero, where family continuity is often central to how wineries are built and sustained across generations, news of the deaths was received not only as a road tragedy but also as a blow to one of the region’s established wine families.