The terroir interpreter
Winemaker Javier Martínez de Salinas of Bodegas Ondarre has spent years studying the vineyards of Viana in Rioja. He tells Decanter about the unique characteristics of wines from this special village
Located in the village of Viana, where the sub-regions of Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental meet, Bodegas Ondarre was established in 1985. It’s part of the pioneering Grupo Bodegas Olarra, a family venture launched in the 1970s that helped to define modern Rioja, and takes its name from the family’s original Azpeitia home in the Basque Country.
From the start, the focus at Ondarre was on making wines with local character to showcase the distinctive Viana terroirs.
At the time however, DOC regulations meant that it was illegal to include specific village or vineyard names on Rioja labels (unless they were registered brands).
That changed in June 2017, when the Consejo Regulador introduced a tier of single vineyard wines, or ‘viñedos singulares’, designed to shine a light on Rioja’s most distinctive terroirs. Along with this, two new categories – ‘vinos de municipio’ (village wines) and ‘vinos de zona’ (zone wines) – were introduced to hone in on grape provenance and differences in terroir. The move was welcomed by Javier Martínez de Salinas, winemaker at Ondarre.
`We started exploring the different terroirs around Viana long ago, identifying essential features for the Viana terroirs first, and then progressively dissecting the area around Viana in terms of several different parameters for the soil, climate and grape varieties,’ he says. ‘Now the legal changes in the Rioja classification system have made it possible for us to communicate all of this.’
A sense of place
Martínez de Salinas has been in charge of Ondarre’s oenology and viticulture since 1998. Before arriving in Rioja he made wine in La Mancha, Ribera del Duero and Rueda. ‘I learned how grape varieties adapt to different terroirs – and how to cope with that from a vine-growing and winemaking point of view,’ he explains.
He applied this knowledge to Ondarre’s vineyards – over 450 separate plots of Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Graciano and Tempranillo Blanco, with an average size of 0.5h. He has also introduced cutting-edge precision viticulture techniques. ‘We’re using soil analysis and topographic maps to obtain information on the differential features defining our terroirs,’ he says.
‘We’re also using infrared aerial imaging to reflect vine activity and have