Beyond the barrel: why ‘diversity and uniqueness’ are Rioja’s true calling cards
Remírez de Ganuza may have built its reputation on longer aged wines, but the real secret to its success has been an open-minded, innovative approach.
When examining an aged wine garlanded with awards and accolades, it can be tempting to put the success down to that time maturing. Surely, the false reasoning goes, quality is an inevitable result.
Yet anyone who has discovered a bottle at the back of a cupboard will know that time does not guarantee success. Relatively few wines will maintain their quality after a few years in barrel and bottle. Fewer still will improve with such ageing.
Remírez de Ganuza is a winery that has earned a reputation for its aged wines. Its reserva and gran reserva wines have routinely scored highly in The Rioja Masters and – scroll to the bottom if you need the proof – they continued that run in 2025.
Yet ageing itself is not the defining attribute of the winery. The fact that the wines are released relatively late is incidental; the focus, instead, is on quality.
“Wine is about hedonistic pleasure,” explains owner José Ramón Urtasun. “Rioja and Spain should talk about the world class wines produced here, and by promoting those wines, the whole region and country would benefit from that prestige.”
The mission to emphasise quality is particularly important because, although the winery’s branding is timeless, it is a much younger company than many reserva specialists. Founded in 1989, it cannot rely on heritage stretching back to the 1800s, as other wineries might.
Long ageing is therefore essential to Remírez de Ganuza’s winemaking – it is, after all, ingrained in Rioja’s structure as an appellation – but it is not the only tool that Urtasun and his team employs. His ethos instead emphasises the diversity that the region can offer, even if that puts him at odds with the appellation’s regulatory body.
“Most of the time, the DO´s interest is – and has historically been – to hide that diversity and focus on promoting the region as a homogeneous product,” he explains, “while the richness of Rioja comes precisely from the diversity and uniqueness of its wines and vineyards.”
Innovation in a traditional package
An untraditional approach has been evident from Remírez de Ganuza’s founding. Indeed, its first owner, Fernando Remírez de Ganuza was not raised in the world of wine, and so approached the project with an outsider’s openness.
At first that meant simple business sense. He acquired and consolidated plots in the Rioja Alavesa, many of which were so small that they were barely commercially viable. By bringing the vineyards together, he gave the fledgling winery sufficient resources to meet his high standards and market demands. Now, Remírez de Ganuza has 80 hectares of vineyards over 240 plots.
Yet it also meant subverting conventional wisdom in the vineyard and the winery. Once harvested, for instance, the bunches are cut in half. The shoulders at the top – the part of the bunch showing greatest phenolic ripeness – are reserved for wines undergoing extended ageing. The tips, which have greater freshness and fruitiness, are destined for Erre Punto, a lighter wine made using carbonic maceration.
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The winery’s appetite for innovation also led it to create Trasnocho, first released in 2001. Made using a giant balloon, its production method makes it one of the most distinctive wines in Rioja.
Most recently, Remírez de Ganuza released UV, a single vineyard wine made with 100% Tempranillo. That may not sound revolutionary, but it is quietly subversive for the winery. Previously, Remírez de Ganuza had blended both plots and varieties for its fine wines.
However, the quality of La Rad, the 52-year-old high-altitude vineyard from which UV is sourced, slowly won over the winemakers. The 2017 vintage was the first to be vinified separately, and UV was revealed as a cuvée last year in its 2022 vintage.
Ultimately, Remírez de Ganuza’s guiding philosophy is its clear search for quality, whether that requires unusual winemaking or a change in approach; whether that is in its famed aged wines or its younger expressions.
It is a clarity that Urtasun is keen to maintain: “Every one of us should step back from time to time to analyse who you are as a winery, who you want to be and what you need to do to walk that path.”
The three wines submitted by Remírez de Ganuza at The Rioja Masters 2025 secured Gold and Master medals in the blind tasting. Patrick Schmitt MW provides his notes on the wines below.
Remírez de Ganuza UV 2022
- Grape variety: 100% Tempranillo
- ABV: 13.5%
- Approx. retail price: £140
- Medal: Gold
With UV standing for ‘unique vineyard’, this single-vineyard varietal Tempranillo from Rioja’s highly respected boutique fine wine producer Bodegas Remírez de Ganuza is a magnificent, if high-priced, youthful expression of the region’s flagship grape. Rich in ripe red cherry flavours, allied to notes of raspberry, plums and blood orange, then rosemary, cracked pepper, toast and clotted cream, this is a rich, complex, fleshy and lively red, with a mouthwatering finish, featuring a touch of tangerine and dense, dry tannins.
Remírez de Ganuza Reserva 2010
- Grape varieties: 90% Tempranillo, 5% Graciano, 2.5% Viura, 2.5% Malvasía
- ABV: 14.5%
- Approx. retail price: £150
- Medal: Master
Based on our tastings over the course of many years, it’s safe to say that this is the benchmark Rioja reserva. Expensive for the region it may be, but as a truly fine wine – which it undoubtedly is – it’s not unreasonably priced. And it delivers instant appeal on release, already with 15 years of barrel and bottle ageing. As for the character of this outstanding wine, well, it will make the drinker smile with its mature fruit flavours, spice, grip and wonderful mix of sweetness and freshness – as it combines baked cherry and prune with blood orange and tangerine peel. Other flavours include cedar, black pepper, leather and balsamic, which reveal themselves in lingering layers as this medium-weight wine slides down the throat with mouthwatering ease, leaving behind a gentle, fine, dry and ripe tannin. While it is wonderful to drink now, it could easily be kept for another 10 years or more.
Remírez de Ganuza Gran Reserva 2012
- Grape varieties: 90% Tempranillo, 8% Graciano, 1% Viura, 1% Malvasía
- ABV: 14.5%
- Approx. retail price: £200
- Medal: Master
Rioja, or indeed mature red wines, don’t get much better than this. While it’s an aged wine, it clearly still has a long life ahead of it. For now, it delivers so much interest and pleasure, with its ripe and spicy mid-palate and chewy-fresh finish. In terms of flavours, there’s black cherry coulis, sweet balsamic, prune, then tangerine, cedar and cigar box, along with lingering, fine, dry, mouth-coating tannins too. Just delicious. And surprisingly easy to sip on its own.
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