Bodegas Riojanas Monte Real Gran Reserva Rioja wine
Imagine it: it’s dawn, there’s dew underfoot, and the rising sun gleams through the mist. As far as the eye can see, there’s Tempranillo on the vine – awaiting harvest.
This is Cenicero, in the very heart of Rioja Alta, and on mornings like this, it feels as though time holds its breath. That’s because, under the care of Bodegas Riojanas, these vineyards produce wines in a tradition that stretches back centuries.
A craft handed down for generations
When they founded Bodegas Riojanas 130 years ago, the Artacho family already had over 100 years of winemaking tradition behind them. The winery has since earned an international reputation for quality – indeed, Bodegas Riojanas even predates the creation of the Rioja Designation of Origin in 1925. It was in the 1930s, though, that Bodegas Riojanas released a wine that would soon become a global icon: Monte Real.
Bodegas Riojanas’ Monte Real Gran Reserva
The very best of Tempranillo
In the 1930s, Román Artacho entrusted French winemaker Gabriel Larrendant with the task of producing a wine embodying the soul of Bodegas Riojanas. Larrendant spotted the extraordinary potential of the El Monte estate in Cenicero, whose vineyards sit between 430 and 530 metres elevation.
The estate is made up of a patchwork of small plots, with vines as much as 120 years old – which, planted on clay and limestone soils, give
