José Luis Ripa

There's a tendency to see rosé as a wine to be chilled down and drunk in the sun. But those in the know have been discovering more complex, textural rosés from Spain and France, names like Pibarnon, Trevallon, Tempier and the poster child of extended ageing Viña Tondonia. José Luis Ripa is a fan of these more 'serious' rosés. His day job is commercial director at a well known winery in Haro, but in 2016 he managed to get hold of some old-vine fruit from the Najerilla Valley, a tributary of the Ebro, and made his first vintage of Ripa Rosado. The wine is mainly Garnacha with a touch of Tempranillo, the must is drawn-off slowly, then fermented and aged for 18-24 months in large oak vats, called bocoyes in Rioja. He only made 3,000 bottles in the first year, he's gradually increasing that, without losing the artisan vision of the project. After all, he has his wife María José López de Heredia to keep him focused!