La Rioja Alta

La Rioja Alta was founded by five families in 1890 and is one of the longest-standing bodegas in Rioja. The descendants of the original founders still run the company today with President Guillermo representing the fifth generation. They are the benchmark for the traditional style of Rioja and are one of the last remaining proponents of the regions oldest winemaking techniques.

La Rioja Alta’s red wines all see extended ageing in American oak barriques which are made by their own coopers, and they rack the wine between barrels by hand and candlelight every 6 months. These traditional techniques produce incredibly fine Rioja with supple tannins and a distinctive spicy, savoury character that underpins all their wines.

Only cutting-edge technology is used in the winery with a full-time lab onsite and innovative laser optical sorting machines for all the wines since 2015 vintage. The motto is ‘evolution, not revolution,’ taking time-honoured techniques and adapting them to the modern world to create the very best wines possible in Rioja.

They’re also incredibly dedicated to finding new eco-friendly methods such as the installation of a solar panel farm at Labastida which will reduce approximately 41.57 tonnes of CO2 annually and they use sustainably processed corks. This year they were recognised as the World’s 4th Most Admired Winery by the Drinks International.

President of La Rioja Alta, Guillermo de Aranzabal said “Making wine is a science. Making great wine is an art” - we couldn’t agree more!