La Rioja Alta

La Rioja Alta was founded in 1890, when five Riojan and Basque families set up the Sociedad Vinícola de La Rioja Alta in Haro's Barrio de la Estación, the Station District, where CVNE, Muga, Roda, Gómez Cruzado and Bilbaínas are neighbours. Its first president was a woman, Saturnina García Cid y Gárate; its first winemaker was a Frenchman, Monsieur Vigier, whose Reserva 1890 is the ancestor of the Gran Reserva 890. The company took its present name in 1941.

The numbered Gran Reservas are dates. 890 marks the founding year; 904 marks the 1904 merger with Alfredo Ardanza's winery. The leading digit is dropped so they do not read as vintages.

The house style is traditional and slow. Barrels are built in-house from American oak air-dried for two years at Haro, and every barrel is racked by candlelight, moved barrel to barrel rather than pumped - every six months on wines like Viña Arana and the 904. Time in wood runs from two years for Viña Alberdi up to six for the 890, which is racked ten times over its stay. Yields are held under 5,000 kilos a hectare.

The Rioja range runs Viña Alberdi, Viña Ardanza, Viña Arana Gran Reserva, and the Gran Reservas 904 and 890. The group also owns Torre de Oña in Rioja Alavesa, Áster in Ribera del Duero, and Lagar de Fornelos in Rías Baixas, whose wines carry the Lagar de Cervera name.