The Monte Real range shows Bodegas Riojanas combining 130 years of expertise with the best of modern winemaking. As the name might imply, Bodegas Riojanas has wide experience in Rioja. It amounts to 130 years and five generations for the family company, with some of its brands having been in production for more than a century. It has also expanded to other renowned Spanish regions – Rueda, Toro, Bierzo, Ribera del Duero and Rías Baixas – but Rioja remains at the heart of its work. One longstanding brand particularly speaks to Bodegas Riojanas’ appreciation of its Rioja terroir. French winemaker Gabriel Larrendant was tasked with crafting a wine that could be an emblem for the winery. Perhaps reflecting his French roots, the country being the archetypal home of terroir, he opted to make a terroir-specific wine from the El Monte estate in the Rioja Alta region. The wine even arrived in a Burgundy-shaped bottle, a flourish that, to this day, marks it as different from a typical Rioja. Those vineyards have been of special quality. The Rioja Alta sub-region, long seen as Tempranillo’s natural home in the Rioja region, tends towards balanced, ripe expressions, and the El Monte estate in Cenicero holds true to that assessment. The vineyards, situated at an altitude of 430m–530m above sea level, have pebbles and clay-calcareous soils that naturally limit yields for the production of high-quality wines. As the years have gone by, that viticultural value of Cenicero has only grown. More than half
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine
