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: 13,5%

Variety: 80% Viura, 20% Malvasía, White Garnacha

CATA's notes: Pale and bright yellow color.
On the nose: subtle and fragrant, delicate and mineral nose, with fresh notes of aromatic herbs and menthol, stone fruits and citrus.
In the mouth: In the mouth it is tasty, with volume, balanced and with fine structure. It has a long and fresh finish, with salty tips, spicy notes, accompanied by fine hints of creamy oak.

Operating temperature: 7-10ºC

Preparation: The vineyards are located in the Sierra Cantabria. The vineyards have an average age of 60 years.

At harvest, the first selection of the grapes takes place. Only the clusters that meet the highest quality are used to make their wines, discarding the rest of the harvest for not meeting the required conditions. His objective is to pick only ripe and healthy grapes, those that come from vines in perfect foliar conditions.

The manual harvest in boxes of 12 kilograms, thus ensuring its perfect condition during the transfer to the winery. Once there, the recently harvested grapes are stored in cold rooms at a temperature of between 4 and 6 degrees, and are selected on tables and made with the flower juice (from unpressed grapes) extracted through a rotor tank.
The wine has been kept on its lees for 10 months of aging in new French oak barrels. The "batonage" (lees work) is practiced to achieve greater complexity by turning the barrels.

Pairing: At Made in Spain Gourmet we recommend it with grilled vegetables, with 100% acorn-fed Iberian sausages, with pickles; and also with meats such as Iberian pork and free-range chicken. Highly recommended with a seafood paella, with salted meats and with blue fish.

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 Remirez 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 foundation. The only noteworthy change that the winery has experienced is that, since 2010, 50% of it belongs to the real estate businessman José Ramón Urtasun, with whom Fernando has partnered to undertake the reforms and improvements necessary to continue growing.

José Urtasun also represents the generational change, although in the seven years he has been co-directing Remírez de Ganuza he has not changed one iota of the ideals that have led to his success.

Their wines are all spectacular, and we at Made in Spain Gourmet are very proud to market them in our online store.