In September, the Indigo team, some customers and I travelled to Rioja to visit José Luis Ripa at his Ripa Rosado vineyards, my father Telmo at Remelluri, and the family-run winery, Bodegas Las Orcas. Rioja is one of the most historic winemaking regions in the world, and it is now experiencing one of the most exciting moments of the last 50 years as a new generation of winegrowers are shifting their focus back to the vineyards, the terroir, and creating wines that truly reflect the authentic Rioja.
On our first day, we met with José Luis Ripa at one of the vineyards used for Ripa Rosado. José Luis is a Rioja native and a passionate researcher of the history of the region. In 2010 he started working at Lopez de Heredia where he met his wife Maria José López de Heredia, a force of nature in the wine scene of la Rioja who is now leading her family winery. José Luis developed a passion for rosé during his Master of Wine studies and has now decided to venture into winemaking with this new project. In this vineyard planted in 1960, José Luis seeks to showcase a more complex and textural rosé. He invited us to his home in Ollauri were we tasted his wine and had a fantastic ‘aperitivo’ while discussing his project and the future of rosé in La Rioja. Later that day, we met Luis Dominguez from Remelluri at Beethoven, a classic restaurant in Haro, the winemaking capital of La Rioja. Accompanied by lamb chops, pimientos, and puerros, we tried the wines from the six villages that make up the Lindes project—a perfect setup for the following day.
We started Tuesday with breakfast in Haro’s main square before heading to Salinillas de Buradón, the most Atlantic of the Lindes villages. Salinillas was a very important village in the 13th century because of its strategic placement and above all its salt mines. Today the remnants of this past glory are its walls fortifying the village and its soils rich in quartz salts which gives a trademark minerality to its wines. Unlike the other villages, which are protected by the mountain range from Atlantic weather fronts, Salinillas is nestled in the Sierra de Cantabria, exposing the vineyards to a more Atlantic climate. Appropriately, it was the only place where we encountered rain!
Next, we travelled to San Vicente, a historically significant town from medieval times that guarded the crossing of the Ebro River. There, we met Alvaro, one of the “Linderos” dedicated to reviving the best viticultural practices. He took us to El Hoyo, a small vineyard with 120-year-old vines that his family has owned for five generations. Alvaro proudly gave us a tour before sharing some delicious tomatoes grown in the vineyard on the bonnet of his car! We also tasted Grandes Lindes de San Vicente Jesusa Areta, named in honour of his mother, who had taken care of his family’s vineyards before him.
We then met Jesús and his father, who walked us through their vineyards in Peciña, a small hamlet of San Vicente with only five inhabitants! Here, we stopped for lunch and tasted the Lindes de Peciña in the perfect setting— The Hermita de Santa Maria de la piscina overlooking San Vicente from the hills of Peciña. Afterward, we visited Ábalos and Rivas del Tereso, two historic villages in Rioja where winemaking has been practiced for over a thousand years. We ended the day in Labastida, where we met Íñigo, who took us to Fuente del Fraile (The Friar’s Fountain), a small vineyard he has been working to restore and bring back to its former glory. In the 17th century, Labastida boasted 330 registered winegrowers; today, only four winegrowers under the age of 30 remain. Íñigo (although just over 30 now) is one of them, fighting to preserve Labastida’s abandoned vineyards.
That evening, we visited the birthplace of this project: La Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri. Here we met up with my dad Telmo, my brother Mateo and my sister Maia. We had dinner, toured the winery, and tasted Remelluri Blanco straight from the barrel. During dinner, we sampled not only the wines of Remelluri but also some old Riojas, including a 1957 bottle of Royal. My father always enjoys returning to the older vintages of Rioja, a time pre-industrialization of winemaking where the vineyards and the places took centre stage. He has always taught us that a much more exciting Rioja can be rediscovered by exploring its past. As he often says, “The future of Rioja is the past.”
On our final day, we headed to Laguardia, a walled Medieval village, to visit another exciting project. In 1994, Raimundo and Cristina Abando founded Bodegas Las Orcas. Raimundo took the scenic route into winemaking, competing in international triathlons as a youngster, but caught the vinous bug later in life and became the third generation of his family to make wine. Today their daughter Lucía, having studied agronomy at university in Rioja and beyond, is taking the reigns in the winemaking, looking to improve their viticultural practices and working with a lighter touch in the new winery they moved into in 2022. Fermentation is now with wild yeasts, sulphur additions have decreased dramatically, and they have bought a number of alternative vessels like concrete tanks and cement eggs, looking to refine the winemaking. They own 10 hectares of grapes and are renting another 12 across nearby vineyards; Lucía explains that the Viura in their vines is planted at the top of their vineyard where there is more limestone, while the Tempranillo is at the bottom where there is more clay.
We then tasted Solar de Randez Barrel Aged Blanco 2023. It’s a single variety Viura from their oldest white grapes, 80-year-old bush vines on pure limestone from around 535 metres above sea level. The wine ferments in tank before spending four months in new French oak barrels. It was showing beautifully, full of ripe citrus oil and fresh pineapple with a gently creamy mid palate and a spicy finish, a lovely combination of body and restraint. It paired superbly with the delicious platters of local cheeses and cured meats we were presented with after, as we sat down to taste (and drink!) the wines with some food.
It is young winegrowers like Lucía that have the immense responsibility to redefine the future of Rioja, rediscovering our ancient winemaking techniques, adapting them when necessary but above all respecting our geographical heritage. It is extremely exciting to see and be a part of this movement, spreading the message of what we are trying to do and rediscovering so much which has been forgotten. After all, Rioja’s future lies in its past!