Having long been a champion of graceful gran reservas with immense ageing potential, La Rioja Alta, S.A. in Haro is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Viña Arana this year and will mark the occasion with the release of a limited-edition collection of three vintages: 1991, 2001 and the current 2016. Having started out as a crianza, Viña Arana has come a long way in a relatively short space of time. In 1979, it began to be labelled as a reserva. A decade later the white grape Viura was phased out of the blend, which from 1997, became a classic combination of 95% Tempranillo and 5% Mazuelo.
We wanted Viña Arana to have the freshness and liveliness of a reserva, along with the complexity of a gran reserva
When La Rioja Alta, S.A. elevated Viña Arana to gran reserva status with the 2012 vintage, Mazuelo made way for Graciano, which was reintroduced into the blend to bring the wine in line with the estate’s other two gran reservas: 904 and 890. ‘We replaced Mazuelo with Graciano to give Viña Arana more structure, acidity and a longer life, so that it could act as a bridge to introduce new consumers to the complex world of gran reservas while retaining its freshness,’ explains Guillermo de Aranzabal Bittner, deputy director of La Rioja Alta, S.A and sixth generation in the winery. He reveals that the estate upgraded the wine to a gran reserva to increase its international reach. ‘We wanted Viña Arana to have the freshness and liveliness of a reserva, along with the complexity of a gran reserva. For us, it embodies the best of both worlds.’
Presiding over 800 hectares of land, La Rioja Alta, S.A. has been on the hunt for prized plots. ‘We’ve been busy buying a lot of very old, low-yielding vineyards in Rioja Alavesa and have acquired 75ha since 2020,’ says de Aranzabal Bittner. ‘The average size of the plots is 0.3ha, so they’re very small and very old. We’re using the grapes to develop new wines and improve our current wines.’ The Tempranillo used in Viña Arana hails from a trio of limestone-rich plots in Rodenzo: Las Cuevas, El Palo and Las Monjas, while the Graciano is grown in alluvial soils in Montecillo in Fuenmayor.
Fusing ancient techniques with cutting-edge technology, the grapes that go into Viña Arana are optically sorted, fermented in stainless steel and matured in American oak barrels for three years. Racking takes place every six months by candlelight on all wine barrels to oxygenate the wine, monitor its quality and clarify sediments. ‘We favour American oak over French as it’s the classic style for gran reserva Riojas but we don’t want the oak flavour to dominate, so the average age of our barrels is 4.5 years,’ says de Aranzabal Bittner, who reveals Viña Arana is only produced six to seven times per decade to maintain its quality.
In our family, we prefer to take the long view rather than follow short-term trends
Keen to evolve with the times, the style of Viña Arana is more fruit forward than it used to be, with a focus on freshness and vibrancy, alongside notes of vanilla, brioche and baking spices. Staying true to this philosophy hasn’t always been easy – particularly during the Robert Parker era when concentration and ripeness reigned – but the rewards are now being reaped, as the wine is thriving in its 80 global markets and is the house pour at three-Michelin-starred restaurant Arzak in San Sebastián. ‘We’re happy about our decision to stay true to our style but there were some difficult times and it came at a cost,’ admits de Aranzabal Bittner. ‘In our family, we prefer to take the long view rather than follow short-term trends.’
Each of La Rioja Alta S.A.’s gran reservas brings something different to the table. The flagship 890 (named in honour of the estate’s founding year of 1890) spends six years in oak and is lauded for its complexity, velvety tannins, and notes of black plum, tobacco leaf and cinnamon. Gran Reserva 904, meanwhile, is more delicate in character, with a silky texture, gentle tannins and notes of cherry and cedar. Viña Arana is all about freshness, vibrancy and fruit expression. ‘The 1991 vintage is showing amazingly well at 33 years and that was without the technology we have access to today, so we still don’t know its full ageing potential, but I believe Viña Arana can age comfortably for 50 years.’
Since the 1980s, La Rioja Alta, S.A. has been holding back a proportion of its stock for vertical tastings and to offer older vintages to fans of the wine on request. The 1987 vintage is the oldest currently available to buy. Keeping one eye on the past while looking to the future has served La Rioja Alta, S.A. well and the estate enjoys cherry-picking the best of traditional and modern techniques. ‘We like to call ourselves avant-garde classicists, as techniques such as racking by candlelight and making our own barrels are core to our identity, while we also make use of drones and a state-of-the-art lab,’ says de Aranzabal Bittner, who believes Viña Arana encapsulates this philosophy. ‘It’s our best wine in the sense that it offers the perfect balance of tradition and modernity – you can find a bit of everything in it.’
