Remírez de Ganuza: this winery’s continuous search for excellence and its commitment to quality has led it to achieve extraordinary recognition around the world
Remírez de Ganuza: this winery’s continuous search for excellence and its commitment to quality has led it to achieve extraordinary recognition around the world
Remírez de Ganuza is located in the small town of Samaniego in Álava. Thanks to the firm’s never-ending search for excellence and its commitment to quality, its wines have achieved extraordinary recognition in Spain and around the world.
The firm´s enologist, Jesús Mendoza, was named Best Winemaker in the Rioja region in 2024 at the Master Winemaker 100 gala organized by The Drinks Business magazine. That same week, he was also given the Best Winemaker 2024 award in Tim Atkin Master of Wine’s Rioja Report. Jesús, born in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, has been at the heart of Remírez de Ganuza since 1994. Coming from a family of winegrowers, the profession runs in his blood.
Remírez de Ganuza is able to bring out the grape’s best expression year after year. An inquisitive team with a great sense of curiosity and impeccable criteria, those at Remírez de Ganuza always have the drive and the time to continue researching with coupages, times, and techniques for aging and fermentation. Small innovations that sometimes come onto the market as limited collections.
Their wines receive recognition every year from some of the most authoritative international wine experts in the world. Iraila, the firm’s only Garnacha-based wine, was awarded 96 points by Decanter in 2024 and a Gold Medal by The Drinks Business. Tim Atkin gave 97 points to Remírez de Ganuza’s Olagar Gran Reserva 2016 White, and described it as follows: “(…) this pure Viura is one of Spain’s greatest whites. So fresh and chiselled that you barely notice the deftly integrated new French oak, this is a flinty, focused, intense white with notes of lemon, wet stones, gunflint and sweet patisserie spices.” Some of the older vintages, such as Trasnocho 2009, Reserva 2006, and Gran Reserva 2009 have recently received ratings that demonstrate that Remírez de Ganuza wines have long aging potential.
José Ramón Urtasun, cellarman at Remírez de Ganuza, explains: “Despite the crisis in the wine world, demand for Remírez de Ganuza continues to increase. Some of our products have sold out yet again this year, some faster than ever – for example, our Blanco Reserva, María, and Erre Punto wines. Every year we face the challenge of determining the accessibility of the most in-demand wines, which are usually only available for a few months. Then you have to wait for the next vintage to become available.”
And what can we expect from the latest harvest? “The 2024 vintage was looking perfect, but at the beginning of September we had excessive rainfall which ended up causing diseases like Botrytis to spread. Thus, we were not able to harvest the quantity of quality grapes that we had expected. We undertook a very meticulous selection process, saving only the exceptional grapes for Remírez de Ganuza and selling anything that did not meet our quality standards to other producers. Having 80 hectares of vineyards allows us to be rigorous in our selection and have grapes of the highest quality every year,” he concludes.
And one of the winery’s key factors is its vineyards: more than 200 plots distributed over nine municipalities in the foothills of the Sierra de Cantabria Mountain Range: Labastida, San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Ábalos, Samaniego, Leza, Elciego, Navaridas, Laguardia, and Elvillar/Bilar. These 80 hectares of vineyards, with an average age of 60 years and low yields, are always harvested by hand. The first selection of grapes takes place in the field, as each harvester works with two containers: a basket where they put the bunches that are later sold to other wineries and a box where they put 12 kg of the best grapes, destined for Remírez de Ganuza wines. Once at the winery, the bunches are left to rest for 24 hours at a controlled temperature before passing through the selection belt – one of the first in Spain. There, the best fruits are once again meticulously chosen.
To never consider anything as a given and to rethink traditional production methods in search of excellence are principles that are ingrained into Remírez de Ganuza’s genetic makeup. Some of their practices, which were revolutionary when they were first implemented, are now the norm at many Rioja Alavesa wineries, such as the way they select grapes at the winery.
One of their most notable systems is the one they introduced for separating the Tempranillo clusters into two: the shoulders, with perfect phenolic properties, are used for Reserva and Gran Reserva wines, while the tips are used for young wines produced with carbonic maceration (Erre Punto Tinto).
To know Remírez de Ganuza is to understand the present of the Rioja Alavesa region; a look at the tradition and the future of wine creation in the area.
Remírez de Ganuza
Calle Constitución 1, Samaniego.
Tel.: +34 945 609 022
