Queirón Winery in Rioja: Where tradition meets innovation
An ancient little village called Quel, population hovering around 2,000, sits in the heart of Rioja Oriental and is home to one of the most exciting boutique wineries of the region. Queirón winery is the culmination of five generations of the Pérez Cuevas family’s wine production in La Rioja, and was officially established in 2010 by Gabriel Pérez.
“It’s my dream”, Gabriel confesses. “The idea of Queirón gradually took shape in my mind around 2010. I had been in many wineries, I’ve built a few and I had a site in Quel that met all my requirements. My memories, my family roots, surrounded by our vineyards, in the Barrio de Bodegas de Quel winery district … I knew that the work would be complex and hard, due to the conditions of the land, but it was clear to me that it was going to be a winery that observed the gravity winemaking philosophy of the former public wineries in the district”.
Indeed the four-level winery was built over 10 years into a hillside, carefully crafted to mimic the natural gravity flow system of the cave wineries that winemakers used for centuries in the village.
Conrado Hererro of Queirón spoke to Mummy Wine Club subscribers during our monthly virtual wine tasting this month where he presented the Queirón Ensayos Capitales Nº 2. Tempranillo Blanco–one of the fours wines in the July 2021 box. During our fascinating chat we learned about the history of Rioja, the two major wine revolutions of the region, how Tempranillo Blanco was discovered, and the special way in which they constantly innovate and trial new methods to produce some of the best gems in Rioja.
Rioja (along with Sherry) is one of the oldest appellations in Spain. It is known as a primarily red wine making region of Spain, but one hundred years ago the production was 50% white. The Phylloxera epidemic destroyed most of Europe’s vineyards, especially in France. Bordeaux – which is only a 4 hour drive from Rioja, but would have been about 10 hours by train at that time- suddenly turned to Rioja as an alternative region for wine production. Red winemaking became more prevalent to the point where white wine only represents a mere 5% of the region’s total production.
French winemakers headed south over the Pyrenees and brought with them the techniques that made Bordeaux so highly regarded, such as small barrel ageing. This technique formed the backbone of Rioja’s quality hierarchy: the best wines spent the longest time in barrel. Crianza spends a minimum of one year in barrel and a few months in bottle, Reservas are aged for a minimum of 3 years, with at least one year in barrel, though it is often longer. Gran Reservas are wines from exceptional vintages which have spent at least 2 years in barrel and 3 years in the bottle. Though in practice most of the new release Gran Reservas are already 10 years old or more when you first see them available in the market.
One of the most significant changes in the Rioja wine region has been the development of a new classification system that rewards origin over oak ageing. Viñedos Singulares (wines from a Single Vineyard), Vinos de Municipio (wines from a Specific Village or Municipal area), and Vinos Zonas (wines are made in one Rioja’s three zones: Rioja Oriental, Rioja Alta, or Rioja Alavesa). Rioja’s move towards site-specificity arms consumers with more knowledge of where their wines come from, and rewards quality relating to soil and the resulting fruit, rather than simply time spent in oak.
Tempranillo Blanco is a natural mutation of the red Tempranillo grape variety that is planted in Rioja. In1988 a Rioja winemaker discovered a bunch of white grapes growing on a red Tempranillo vine in his Murillo de Rio Leza estate in Rioja Baja (now known as Oriental). He called the Consejo Regulador of Rioja and after several years of investigation, the Consejo accepted that this was a natural mutation of the usually red Tempranillo grape and approved it as a variety to be grown DOCa Rioja. These mutations happen frequently in many vineyards around the world, similar to white and gris mutations of both Pinot Noir and Garnacha. The Pérez Cuevas family were one of the few original believers of Tempranillo Blanco and they invested in planting 15ha of it in their vineyards.
What most impressed me about the Queirón project is that although it is built upon the family’s deep roots in the region, and has carefully observed local tradition (like their gravity flow winery mimicking the local ancient cave wineries found in Quel), it is in fact a very forward thinking winery. Indeed Conrado revealed that it is more of a think tank/test kitchen where ideas and new methods are continuously trialled, and their successes get bottled. “Everything we learn in Queirón, gets applied across the range of wines mad in Queirón and in their larger winery, Ontanon.” Thus the name of the wine we have before us, ‘Ensayos Capitales 2’ which roughly translates to ‘major trial’.
Tinaja, which is the Spanish term for clay vessel, is the unique method of ageing that makes Queirón Ensayos Capitales Nº 2. Tempranillo Blanco so sensational. Besides using only free run juice of the best Tempranillo Blanco sourced from high altitude vineyards, the must then undergoes a cold maceration to extract fine aromas before a natural fermentation commences. Following 5 months ageing in new oak, the wine is transferred to Tinaja where it benefits from a natural convection that encourages a constant and gentle lees stirring giving the wine a silky smooth mouthfeel. The vessel’s naturally porous clay material also allows for a slow micro-oxidation which adds to the wine’s savoury complexity and ageability. We noticed each label states that the bottle is X out of 3,126 that were produced, which Conrado explained is down to the 2,500L capacity of one Tinaja. So not only is it very fine, it’s also extremely limited!
Subscribe to the monthly Wine Club to receive a curated case delivered to your door, and an invitation to the monthly virtual wine chats with producers.