Viñedos Singulares in La Rioja

La Rioja, by far Spain’s best-recognized wine region, is known for its ageable blends. But six years ago, La Rioja’s governing body, or consejo regulador, changed its regulations to fall in line with the terroir-focused spirit of modern times. In principle, all wineries now have the possibility to make a single vineyard wine and to label it as such. The uptake of the new rules is noteworthy, but wineries like Artadi and Artuke, which have long been championing terroir-based wines, are not impressed.

Rioja’s traditional classification is based on the use of oak barrels and the amount of time the wines spend ageing before being put on the market. Labeling red wine as Crianza requires a minimum of 24 months of maturation, of which at least twelve months is in barrique. Reserva requires three years of ageing, of which at least one year is in barrel and 6 months in bottle. To qualify as Gran Reserva, the highest level in the classification, a wine must age for a minimum of 5 years with at least 2 years in barrel and 2 years in bottle.

Artadi’s history
The Artadi winery in Laguardia is relatively young. When it was founded as a private cooperative in 1985, it consisted of 12 small wineries that had always sold their grapes but had the ambition to make their own wines. Juan Carlos Lopez de Lacalle owned one of them. During the first seven years, he slowly bought out the others, and in 1992 he gained full control over the cooperative, turning it effectively into a regular, private winery.

Initially, Artadi was a traditional Rioja winery crafting beautiful blends, like their top wine, Pajos Viejos, made with grapes from old vines, and the Grandes Añadas, which were only made in outstanding years. In 2002, the last year it was made, the grapes came exclusively from the Carretil vineyard. In hindsight, you could argue this was Artadi’s first step towards terroir-driven wine.

Eventually, it led the Lopez de Lacalle family – Juan Carlos’s three children have meanwhile joined the company – to discontinue their Pajos Viejos in 2014. A year later they left the appellation – a brave decision they could afford because they had a strong brand of their own. Labeling with Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva didn’t reflect their philosophy any longer.

On a visit last summer to the Artadi winery on the outskirts of the pretty hilltop town of Laguardia, Patricia, Juan Carlos’s youngest child and second daughter, tells me why.

“First of all,” she says, “we found the division into three subregions too crude. With around 64.000 hectares of vineyards, Rioja is an immense wine appellation. A subdivision into Rioja Alta (the cooler, higher western part), Alavesa (the Basque part) and Rioja Oriental (the warmer eastern part) isn’t sufficient.”
“Secondly,” Patricia continues, the consejo’s policies, heavily influenced by the large wineries, favored quantity over quality. As a result, simple and cheap supermarket wines could and can be sold with the Rioja appellation on the label, thus tainting the standing of the Rioja brand. Moreover, labor-intensive practices like organic farming and hand-harvesting, as well as the elimination of irrigation, were not recognized.”
“But finally, and most importantly,” Patricia emphasizes, “it was the absence of terroir-focused labeling options. The soils and meso-climates change over short distances, and this reflects itself in the grapes and ultimately in the wines. We want to show that.”

Patricia admits honestly that they had expected other wineries to follow them. Although that didn’t happen, the Lopez de Lacalle family are not considering rejoining the appellation. The very recent news that the members of the Bodegas Familiares de Rioja are jointly leaving the Consejo will strengthen Artadi in its convictions.

Viñedo Singular’s requirements
Artadi’s step was a wake-up call for the consejo and they responded relatively swiftly. In 2017 they introduced new rules that opened the door for single vineyard wines (viñedo singular). (The vino de municipio or village wine was already introduced in 1999.) For single vineyard wines, the vines need to have a minimum age of 35 years, yields may not be higher than 5000 kilos per hectare, the grapes need to be hand-harvested, and the processing yield is capped at 65 percent.

At first glance, this seems to be a groundbreaking change for the blend-centered appellation. The statistics the consejo provided to me indicate that there is indeed a substantial interest in adopting the new style and the corresponding labeling options. So far, 1.8 million liters of village wine has been marketed by 53 wineries. There are 148 officially recognized single vineyards with a total of 246 hectares. The sales have grown by 21.8 percent from 2021 to 2022.

Artuke’s objections
However, when I visit Artuke in Miranda de Ebro, co-owner Arturo de Miguel tells me there are some serious flaws in the new system. His objections are twofold, De Miguel says, as we are tasting through his impressive range of village and vineyard wines.

First of all, for a village wine not only do the grapes need to be grown within the delimited area of one village, but the winery is also required to be located in that same village. As if the Volnay based Domaine de Montille couldn’t make a Chassagne-Montrachet village wine. When I asked the consejo about this, they responded that when the new rules were “launched in 2017, the aim was to develop not only a product concept but also a social one. This means considering the environment of the village in which the wine was produced.” However, they also said: “It is certainly a subject under study, and maybe in the near future we will consider the possibility of operators who want to make wine from various villages.”
De Miguel’s other reservation regarding the current rules is the fact that single vineyard names are owned. Hence, only one winery can use the name. When I once again apply this rule to Burgundy, the mother of all terroir-driven appellations, it would mean that the vineyard name Clos de Vougeot could only be used by one winery. In reality there are around 80 entities who own a part of this vineyard, of which many make a Clos de Vougeot labeled wine. The consejo’s comment was: “It should be borne in mind that singular vineyards do not only integrate the specificity of the vineyard but also additional and restrictive qualitative requirements for the wine. This makes them unique business projects in which the winemaker’s expertise and intervention are of decisive importance. That is why they have to be single projects.” In other words, the consejo seems to assume that only one grower can have that expertise, something Artuke and Artadi contest.

Adding to De Miguel’s objections, De Lacalle says that she also doesn’t agree with the required maximum yield. Depending on the vintage, she says, in some years a yield of 7000 kg per hectare can deliver excellent quality, while in another year 3000 kg per hectare can be too much. She also finds the minimum age of 35 years too low. Although the yield regulation does curtail a vintner’s autonomy, assessing the right maximum yield on an annual basis still won’t do justice to differences between sites. As for the vines’ age, Jancis Robinson, for one, actually praised the appellation for “setting the bar this high”.

Rejoining or not?
It can hardly be a surprise that Artadi, for the time being, will not rejoin the appellation. Artuke, on the other hand, stays within the appellation, but stretches the rules to their own advantage. Against the rules of the appellation, Artuke prints the village name on the labels of its single vineyard wines. The label of what they see as their “premier cru” Paso las Mañas, for instance, also mentions Paraje el Chorro, viñedo en Samaniego, while the label of their “grand cru” El Escolladero also contains the text Paraje el Meadero, viñedo en Ábalos. “Artuke delivers quality, our wines get high scores, we have only a small production and our wines sell for a high price,” De Miguel says to explain why the consejo lets Artuke get away with it.

Viñedo Singular, lots of potential
If the new regulations are a resounding success is still too early to say. Even the consejo regulador puts its own statistics into perspective. Of the 148 official single vineyard sites, only 65 are currently actively marketed by only 42 of the approximately 7500 winegrowers who bottle their own wines. Although blends remain the most important style, there is a growing desire to make wines of origin in Rioja. Despite some flaws, it is good the possibility now exists. Artuke and Artadi’s wines are proof of the tremendous potential La Rioja has to make distinctive wines that are an expression of their location.