Bodegas Marqués de Riscal
Marqués de Riscal (with full company name Herederos del Marqués de Riscal SA ) is a winery in Spain in the town of Elciego , in the Rioja Alavesa , which has existed since 1858. Today it is also the name of a Spanish group of companies in the wine industry in the legal form of a stock corporation based in Elciego. Marqués de Riscal is the oldest winery in the Basque province of Álava and has specialized exclusively in red wines for over a hundred years . From 1972 white wines from the Rueda wine- growing region in the province of Valladolid are also sold .
In 2006 the Marqués de Riscal company founded the “Ciudad del Vino” (City of Wine) in Elciego, which includes wineries, vineyards and a leisure complex with the Hotel Marqués de Riscal . The avant-garde hotel building was designed by the Canadian - American architect and designer Frank O. Gehry and inaugurated by the Spanish King Juan Carlos I in 2006. It is assigned to the architectural style of deconstructivism . This sandstone building with its unusual roof made of titanium and stainless steel sheet houses a hotel and two restaurants, the Bistro 1860 and the Marqués de Riscal , which were awarded a Michelin star in 2011 . The hotel is operated by the US hotel company Marriott International , currently (in 2019) by its new division Marriott Bonvoy .
About history
The diplomat and journalist Camilo Hurtado de Amézaga (1827–1888), the VI. Marqués de Riscal, who lived in Bordeaux , was commissioned around 1852 by the regional government of the Basque province of Álava, the Diputación Foral de Álava , to look for a winemaker who was familiar with the techniques used in the Médoc to make red wine to help make wines in the Spanish region of Alava based on the French model. This was found with the master of the bodegueros of the Château Lanessan's cellars , Jean Pineau. In addition, Hurtado sent 9,000 vines of the finest varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon , Merlot , Malbec and Pinot noir grown in France to the Rioja Alavesa to experiment with on the Rioja vineyards where only the Tempranillo and Graciano grape varieties were previously grown.
In 1858, Hurtado, who had inherited some wineries in Elciego from his father, founded the Marqués de Riscal winery , employed Pineau and used the techniques used in France. At the international exhibition in Bordeaux in 1895, Marqués de Riscal was the first non-French winery to receive the honorary diploma.
In Marqués de Riscal some innovations go back, as the metal mesh that encloses the bottle to make it difficult to fraudulent mislabeling and to give a luxurious image to the bottle, or the use of 225-liter drums or bottles in a horizontal position.
Vineyards
The company's wine production is based on extensive hillside or flat vineyards that are owned by the company and others that are leased. Marqués de Riscal uses 1,500 hectares of vineyards in the Rioja region in Elciego, Leza , Laguardia and Villabuena de Álava , of which it owns around 500 hectares. There are also other cultivation areas in the vicinity.
The Sierra de Toloño, a small mountain range of the Sierra de Cantabria, located to the north at a distance of about 10 km, protects the cultivated areas from thunderstorms. Almost 2 km south of the river flows the Ebro , which forms the border between the Basque province of Álava and Navarra on the one hand and the autonomous communities of La Rioja and Castile and León on the other. The vineyard's wine country extends to the Ebro Valley. The mineral-rich limestone and clay soils there are ideal for viticulture .
The preferred grape varieties are Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo , which are 90, 7 and 3 percent, respectively, in the winery's typical red wines.
range
The wines are fermented in traditional fermentation tanks, wooden vats made of oak, and matured in barriques , usually in barrique barrels in the Bordelais ship size with a volume of 225 liters. The barrels for the finer wines are made from French oak and used for up to five years. American oak barrels are also used for up to ten years.
The brand brings around 7,000,000 bottles of red and white wine and 200,000 bottles of Laurent Perrier sparkling wine onto the market and exports 60% of its production to over 100 countries.
Under the designation of origin D.O. Ca Rioja sells Marqués de Riscal red wines from the brands Frank Gehry Selection 2012 , Barón de Chirel , Finca Torrea , Marqués de Riscal 150 Aniversario , Marqués de Riscal Gran Reserva , Marqués de Riscal Reserva , Arienzo and Marqués de Riscal Rosé Wine .
The DO Rueda white wine includes the brands Marqués de Riscal Limousin , Finca Montico , Marqués de Riscal Sauvignon Blanc Organic , Marqués de Riscal Rueda and Marqués de Riscal Organic .
There are also three wines from Castile and León with the designation of origin VT Castilla y Leon Marqués de Riscal Viñas Viejas , a rosé wine , Barón de Chirel Verdejo Viñas Centenarias , a white wine, and Riscal Tempranillo , a red wine.
Some of the best red wines in the Rioja region come from the Marqués de Riscal winery. You have received many awards. In 2018 at the ProWein event in Düsseldorf, the General Manager of Sales at Vinos José Luis Muguiro Aznar was named Wine Entrepreneur of the Year by Herederos Marquès de Riscal . There it was found that Marqués de Riscal had become one of the most important wine producers in Spain under his management. Marqués de Riscal is also purveyor to the court for the Spanish royal family.
Historic wine cellar
Bottled wines of all vintages from 1862 onwards are stored in the historic wine cellar of the winery. If an old bottle is opened, the cork is not pulled, but the neck of the bottle with a kind of tongs that is heated, heated in the shape of a collar and then cooled with water. In this way, a break usually occurs without any glass splinters. Two bottles opened for Frank O. Gehry, born in 1929, are legendary, the contents of which are said to have contributed to Gehry taking over the hotel project . In 2011, Marqués de Riscal organized a historic wine auction in Beijing (China) for 100 vintages from 1862 to 2005. Such wine auctions, especially in Asia, generate sales in the millions.
Web links
- Official website (Spanish, English)
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ THE CITY OF WINE. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ THE CITY OF WINE - Restaurants. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Hotel Marqués de Riscal, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Elciego. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Marqués is a Spanish nobility title that corresponds to the French marquis (see Margrave )
- ↑ The Bodega: Herederos del Marqués de Riscal. Retrieved May 14, 2019 .
- ^ Marqués de Riscal, the history. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Our Wines, DO Ca RIOJA. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Our Wines, DO RUEDA. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Gourmet & Wine: Meininger Award Excellence in wine & spirit 2018 for six important personalities from the international wine industry. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ ONLINE FOCUS: Marqués de Riscal winery - the purveyor to the Spanish royal family. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ^ Marqués de Riscal, the history. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ ZEIT ONLINE: Wine auctions - bidding battles for large bottles - sales of millions are made with wine auctions. An introduction to a select area of collecting. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .