Description

Remirez de Ganuza, an oenological paradise in La Rioja

The vineyards are made up of more than eighty hectares of Tempranillo, Graciano, Viura and Malvasia. They are spread over six towns in the Sierra Cantabria: Samaniego, Leza, Elciego, San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Laguardia and Ábalos, in Rioja Alavesa. In all of them, the habitat, the microclimate, the orientation of the plots, the low productivity of the vines and the age of the vineyard have been taken into account for their selection, with the average age of the vines being fifty years. This large area of land allows them to be self-sufficient in grapes of the highest quality.

Board Characteristics

Store: Own Vineyards, in Bodegas Fernando Remírez de Ganuza, Samaniego (Rioja Alavesa).
DOCa. The Rioja
Grade: 14%

Variety: 90% Tempranillo, 5% Graciano, 5% Viura and Malvasía skins

CATA's notes: Purple black.
On the nose: Fine and complex. Soft aromas of ripe red and black fruit.
In the mouth: Tasty picked up. Well polished tannins. Wide, elegant, delicate and long.

Operating temperature: 16ºC

Preparation: They are distributed in six towns in the Sierra Cantabria: Samaniego, Leza, Elciego, San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Laguardia and Abalo
The harvest is done manually in boxes of 12 kg. Before fermentation, the grapes are kept in cold rooms for 24 hours at a temperature of 4-6 degrees.
The grapes go through a selection table where the different parts of the bunch are separated. For the production of this wine, the shoulders are used, the upper part of the bunch more exposed to the sun, and therefore, more mature.
Fermentation takes place in small stainless steel tanks and French oak vats. The maleolactic fermentation takes place in new barrels.
Aging takes place for 24 months in new oak barrels (80% French oak and 20% American oak).
We recommend decanting it for an hour before enjoying this great wine from La Rioja.

The Remírez de Ganuza vineyards are made up of more than eighty hectares of Tempranillo, Graciano, Viura and Malvasia. They are spread over six towns in the Sierra Cantabria: Samaniego, Leza, Elciego, San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Laguardia and Ábalos. In all of them, the habitat, the microclimate, the orientation of the plots, the low productivity of the vines and the age of the vineyard have been taken into account for their selection, with the average age of the vines being fifty years. This large area of land allows us to self-supply the highest quality grapes.

Pairing: At Made in Spain Gourmet we recommend this wine with game, grilled red meat, roasted red meat, of course with acorn-fed Iberian ham, roast lamb, aged sheep or goat cheese.

A traditional winery with avant-garde production

Will find Remirez de Ganuza in the center of Samaniego, a beautiful medieval village at the foot of the Sierra de Toloño. Of medieval origin, today it preserves its appearance as a fortified town visible in many of its buildings and especially in the church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción from the XNUMXth century, built next to one of the four towers that defended the town.

La Remirez de Ganuza winery As we said before, it is located in the center of Samaniego, Álava. It is made up of a block of buildings, old mansions of the town, it is made up of modern reinforced concrete structures covered with old masonry, thus integrating into the traditional local architecture.

Around a large central patio crossed by a natural water channel, the different buildings that structure the winery are dedicated to the different phases of winemaking, such as the barrel area, the bottle racks, the cold rooms or the selection.

The traditional architecture of the winery, in which the interior roof made up of centuries-old oak beams stands out, contrasts with one of the most avant-garde and innovative production methods of the moment.

La Rioja Alavesa: the elite of La Rioja wines

Rioja Alavesa is classified as a sub-zone in the Rioja Qualified Denomination of Origin. It has 13.500 hectares of vineyards and several hundred wineries, which result in an annual average of around 40 million liters of wine.

The area especially produces red wines with general specific characteristics, such as a bright and lively color, a fine aroma, a fruity taste and a pleasant palate. These peculiarities are due to the clayey-calcareous soils of the area, which are excellent for the vines to absorb the necessary moisture. The climate and the location of the vineyards also contribute to its quality, behind the Sierra de Toloño, which protects the vines from the cold north winds and allows the vines to take better advantage of the heat.

The reds are the most representative wines of the region and are made with the Tempranillo varieties (around 79% of the total is produced from this grape), Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano.

The young or red wines of the year are mostly made using the traditional method of carbonic maceration, in which whole clusters are fermented in a 'lake' for between seven and ten days. Once free of skins and scratches, they go to the vats where they will finish fermentation.

For their part, crianza, reserva and gran reserva wines are made using the Bordeaux or destemming process. It consists of breaking the grape, removing the stems and incubating the must with its paste for seven days. After several fermentations, they go to the barrels for aging. It will be the time spent in the barrel and in the bottle that will make the difference between crianzas, reservas and gran reservas.

Due to the fact that rosé and white wines are increasingly appreciated both inside and outside our borders, winemakers and oenologists work on the production of quality wines from these varieties, in a bid to approach all markets.

Additional Information

Weight :	1,6 kg
do	DOCa Rioja

Information about Remírez de Ganuza

Founded in 1989, Bodegas Remírez de Ganuza was born as a personal commitment of its founder, Fernando Remírez de Ganuza.

From the beginning, the idea has been the same: make an exhaustive selection of the grapes and intervene as little as possible in the wine-making process to be as faithful as possible to both the vintage and the vineyard.

The activity carried out by Fernando in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs in the Rioja Alavesa area, dedicated to the purchase and sale of old vineyards, allowed him to select the most appropriate farms in the region to develop his project. To build his winery he chose the medieval town of Samaniego, located at the foot of the Sierra de Cantabria. There he found what he was looking for, some vines that were around half a century on average and that were capable of producing a grape that approached the very high quality standards that had been set. Because, for him, the selection process was and is the fundamental part. His concept is that the intervention of the winemaker in the production of the broth is secondary - the key, once again, is in the grape - and each wine must be a faithful reflection of the vintage and the land from which it comes.

Over the years, elements have been incorporated into the production and aging process that make Remírez de Ganuza a pioneering winery in the application of new techniques. Innovation from the beginning has been a constant, since year after year improvements are incorporated to raise the quality of the wines. Elements such as the selection table, cold chambers or the use of new barrels for aging wines, may be common today in other internationally prestigious wineries, but they were not at the time they were applied. Other elements such as the bag used in the extraction of Trasnocho or the machine to wash the grapes with its own must, are examples of the continuous innovation and search for quality carried out in Remírez de Ganuza.

The philosophy has not changed since its founding. The only notable change that the winery has undergone is that, since 2010, 50% of it belongs to the real estate entrepreneur José Ramón Urtasun, with whom Fernando partnered to undertake the necessary reforms and improvements to continue growing. Urtasun also represents generational change, although in the seven years that Remírez de Ganuza has been co-directing, the ideals that have led to his success have not changed one iota.