Ramirez de Ganuza
WINERY
Founded in 1989 in Samaniego, Bodegas Remírez de Ganuza winery came into existence as a personal project by its founder, Fernando Remírez de Ganuza, with a clear goal: to create great wines by undertaking an exhaustive selection of grapes, intervening minimally in the process of wine production, and being as true as possible to the vine and the vintage.
The business activity undertaken by Fernando during the seventies and eighties in the Rioja Alavesa area, dedicated primarily to the purchase and sale of old vineyards, allowed him to select the most appropriate estates of the region to start his winery. Over the years, he has gradually added elements to the wine production and aging processes, becoming a pioneer in the application of new techniques: elements such as the use of a sorting table, refrigeration chambers, and new barrels for aging – things that are now common in other wineries of international prestige, but were quite uncommon at the time that Fernando began to use them.
His vineyards are comprised of more than seventy hectares of Tempranillo, Graciano,viura, and Malvasia grape varieties distributed over eight municipalities of the Sierra de Cantabria region: Samaniego, Leza, Elciego, San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Labastida, Elvillar, Laguardia, and Ábalos.
All of these municipalities have been selected by taking into account their habitat, microclimate, orientation of the plots of land, the low productivity of the strains, and the age of the vineyards – with the average age of the strains being fifty years.this spacious surface area of land allows for self-supply of utmost quality grapes.
Trasnocho, fincas de Ganuza, and Erre Puntotinto are some of the excellent wines that come out of this winery; however, their flagship wine is undoubtedly their Remírez de Ganuza Reserva, which uses only the finest grapes from vineyards whose average age is 60 years. Fermentation is undertaken in small stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels that hold 7,000 liters. Both the wine’s malolactic fermentation and its aging are always undertaken in a new barrel to ensure that the wine is a true reflection of its vintage.
To taste these wines is quite an experience, especially if you do so at the winery itself. Its traditional architecture, with its noteworthy ceiling made up of centuries-old oak beams, sharply contrasts with one of the most avant-garde and innovative production methods in existence today. All of this is driven by one, single idea: staying true to the grape. Remírez de Ganuza is located in the center of Samaniego, an idyllic village at the foot of the Sierra de Cantabria Mountain Range.a medieval village, it still preserves the appearance of a fortified town. this is apparent in many of its buildings, especially in the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Church of Our Lady of the Assumption), which is from the sixteenth century and built next to one of the four defense towers that protected the population in days gone by.