Vitorino Eguren Ugarte and Mercedes Cendoya Rojas
Asunción and Mercedes Eguren Cendoya
Sixth generation of a family dedicated to the care of the vineyard, with winery and hotel among vineyards located in Laguardia.
We have 130 hectares of our own vineyards in Rioja Alavesa, where we cultivate and control the production of our grapes in a traditional way.
When cultivating our vineyards, we are committed to caring for the environment, fauna, and ecosystem. The plants take root by colonizing the soil and many living microorganisms work in symbiosis through mycorrhization, facilitating the absorption of nutrients, resulting in wines that reflect the authentic terroir of the Rioja Alavesa.
We carry out the harvest manually and mechanically, ensuring that the grapes arrive at the winery at their optimal moment.
Vineyard’s diary
The flowering of the vine is at its peak and most committed. The image shows the embryos about to flower in our vineyards in Labastida at the foot of the Sierra de Toloño.
José Miguel Mendoza Vineyard Department Manager
After the winter vegetative stop, spring is pumping sage, the drops (‘weeping’) dilate the eyes and form buds, soon the gems will burst forth.
José Miguel Mendoza Vineyard Department Manager
The harvest will end in Labastida’s estates today: El Monte, Rincón del Soto and the grapes of Alto del Rey, Solagüen and La Rá.
Pablo Martínez Urigüen oenologist EGUREN UGARTE
This year the grapes came in very healthy thanks to the dry weather in September. The bunches and grapes are as usual. In the picture with some clusters of Tempranillo grapes from Rincón del Soto.
Javier Martínez de Lagrán Winery manager EGUREN UGARTE
We are going to cut grapes in ‘El Monte’ estate for Martín Cendoya in Labastida today and tomorrow. Moreover, we are in ‘Rincón del Soto’ for reserva, we are taking 2022’s wine harvest and we are going to enjoy it on… 2030! It is so grateful working with a perspective, at next years. On wine cellars, we continue emptying, step by step, it looks so good… a lot of fruit!
Pablo Martínez Urigüen oenologist EGUREN UGARTE
Wonderful day!!! Wine harvest at ‘Rincón del Soto’ estate, vineyard founded in 1993, a range in tempranillo. Grapes for the one of our ‘specials’ reserva: 80’s. We can see a huge oak which considers our work yearly.
Greetings and HAVE A GOOD WINE HARVEST!!
José Miguel Mendoza Vineyard Department Manager
In the field we continue to cut the grapes at the optimum moment of ripening, on time, neither before nor after, we have succeeded in waiting, patience rewarded… 2022’s wines will be grateful because of lots of color, abundant fruit and softness!
In the wine cellar we are in the first devatting of the reds and barrel fermentation of the whites.
Pablo Martínez Urigüen oenologist EGUREN UGARTE
Finca La Hueta
tempranillo
The 2022 grape harvest threatened to come early but, in the end, the grapes were grateful for more time on the vineyard, cooler daytime temperatures, cooler nights and a little water. The vineyard is in extraordinary health. We continue with sampling in order to plan the order of the vineyards to be harvested. Quality expectations are encouraging.
Pablo Martínez Urigüen – Oenologist EGUREN UGARTE
Design bunches, weighing around 200 grams, separated from each other, allowing homogeneous ventilation and a perfect sanitary condition. Have a nice wine harvest!!!!
José Miguel Mendoza – Winery manager EGUREN UGARTE
Finca Chillarán
maturana
Harvesting is a matter of time and timing. Cutting the fruit at its best moment satisfies as well as costs, it excites to think that good grapes make good wine!
Yesterday and today, harvesting maturana (early red variety) in Chillarán. It is beautiful… really nice.
José Miguel Mendoza Vineyard Department Manager EGUREN UGARTE
Finca Sotovin
First devatings of the 2021 harvest, the first young wines of the season start to show their face… good color and excellent aroma.
Good weather for a good vintage. The cold nights this week are good for phenolic maturation, and we can already see the color change in the leaves.
Pablo Martínez Urigüen
oenologist EGUREN UGARTE
Finca Las Mangadas
Veraison is practically over. The grapes begin to ripen until they reach optimum levels of alcohol, acidity and tannins.
Finca Cascajo de San Blas
I had a hard time finding… we already have some pinto! There go these bunches of Tempranillo. With the veraison the clusters acquire reddish, bluish or violet tones, leaving the green ones behind.’
José Miguel Mendoza Vineyard Department Manager EGUREN UGARTE
Finca La Hueta
‘Tempranillo for Crianza, good vineyard…. with great potential!’
Pablo Martínez Urigüen oenologist EGUREN UGARTE
Finca Rincón de Soto
‘Finca Rincón de Soto (in the background and to the right), photo taken from Finca La Hueta, tempranillos for Reserva or more…’
Pablo Martínez Urigüen oenologist EGUREN UGARTE
Finca El Puntido
‘Contrast of greens after a welcome morning shower. Good tempranillos for our Reserva 2021 and a few Viura on the edge of the estate for our white 2021 Fernando Pessoa writes suggestively: The fields are greener in their greenness than in their greenness.’
Pablo Martínez Urigüen oenologist EGUREN UGARTE
Finca El Monte
Spectacular tempranillos to elaborate our Martín Cendoya 2021. In full herbaceous growth, they have the size of a pea, K state is called. They will continue to grow until the color change, at veraison, scheduled for early August.’
Pablo Martínez Urigüen oenologist EGUREN UGARTE.
Finca La Rá
‘Week and a half decisive for being in full bloom. In the pictures, the three stages of flowering can be perfectly appreciated in a cluster of the Tempranillo variety: the inflorescence without opening, about to open, and completely open with the flower visible. It is very important that in the coming days the weather is warm, without strong air, and of course without heavy rains. The 2021 harvest is at stake!’
José Miguel Mendoza Vineyard Department Manager EGUREN UGARTE.
Finca Chillarán
Spergura is used to limit and arrange the shoots (the future shoots) to optimize the quality of the grapes, ensuring their aeration and health. In the images (photos and video) you can see a thumb that with the spergura (also called green pruning) goes from 5 to 2 shoots.
Finca Sotovín
Visible clusters! They will have flowered in a month and the harvest is already in sight! We are in the middle of weeding, a green pruning in which we remove low shoots and branches that hinder the aeration of the grapes in autumn.
Finca Las Mangadas
Replanting works on the upper plank of the estate, placing the grafts with care and the help of water drills. The four planks and the arched layout of the vineyard make Las Mangadas a lush amphitheater of vegetation. The south orientation exposes the vines to the sun and protects them from the north wind.
Finca La Concepción
‘El lloro’ is felt and announces Spring. The vine resurges from its winter dormancy, the sap rises through the plant. In the image a drop of sap, a tear. Nature is wise!
Finca Bonelli
Chardonnay
650m height
The chardonnay ‘button’ announces bud break and the change of season.
The altitude of the estate is optimal for the early cycle of the vineyard’s three white grape varieties: Grenache Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.
Centenary Vineyards
The grapes used to make our wines come from vineyards that are over 50 years old, located in Labastida and Páganos, in the heart of Rioja Alavesa. These are privileged locations due to their altitude of around 600-700 meters and their particular microclimate, favorable for the production of quality grapes.
The soils where our vineyards are located are clayey-local soils. Its north-south orientation and high trellis training allows for optimum quality in production, as well as a lower incidence of diseases and greater interception of solar radiation.
In recent years, the winery has opted for new grape varieties for the production of single-varietal whites and reds. To this end, it has bought farms in the areas with the best soil and climate, aiming to obtain the best grapes from the varieties planted.
The confluence of the Atlantic and Mediterranean climates has, for thousands of years, created the perfect location for growing quality vineyards.
Commitment to Sustainability
In our vineyards, we combine modern viticulture with a deep respect for the land and the environment.
- For years, we have significantly reduced the use of herbicides, replacing them with inter-row weeders, a tool capable of mechanically eliminating weeds that grow in the rows.
- On farms that are going to host new plantations, a natural soil disinfection plan is established by sowing certain species of the Brassica family. These nematocidal covers, when incorporated into the soil, have a biocidal action, disinfecting the soil from nematodes and other microorganisms, thus avoiding the fumigation of aggressive chemical products in the soil.
- We have a network of weather stations that provide us with real-time information via the Internet on humidity, air and soil temperature, leaf moisture, rainfall, etc. We also install traps and carry out pest counts. All this information allows us to estimate whether it is proper to apply a treatment based on the risks, as well as the most proper time to do so. The products we use are always very selective for the pest to be eliminated, thus respecting the auxiliary fauna of the vineyard.
Thanks to all these actions, in February 2012 we obtained the INTEGRATED PRODUCTION certification, issued by the HAZI foundation.
Bet on Innovation
At Eguren Ugarte, we are committed to applied research and development, leading various cutting-edge projects in our Rioja vineyards. Our lines of research are mainly focused on environmental sustainability and in-depth knowledge of our vineyards, all with the ultimate goal of excellence and improving the quality of our products.
Innovative Vegetation Management Techniques
Along these lines, studies have been carried out on early leaf removal in Tempranillo vineyards in goblet and trellis settings.
This innovative early leaf removal technique, which is carried out around flowering, makes the transition from flower to fruit (“set”) imperfect, resulting in smaller and looser bunches. In this way, we obtain more homogeneous, more concentrated, and higher quality fruits.
The first results of this experiment are very encouraging, both manually and through the use of mechanical leaf removers, in the case of trellised vineyards. Much looser bunches are obtained, with a lower incidence of diseases, and better color and polyphenol content.
Precision Viticulture
Seeking to gain the maximum knowledge of our vineyards, we carry out field measurements using new technologies, such as remote sensing (aerial flights with infrared cameras) as well as other soil sensors, grape color, etc.
Our goal is to acquire as much information as possible about our vineyards, which will allow us to extract the maximum potential and quality from each small part of them.
Green Roofs
Many of our vineyards are located at the foot of the Sierra Cantabria, on steep slopes, where erosion and washing of the soil is frequent.
To prevent soil loss, one of the most important environmental problems in today’s agriculture, we evaluate the adaptation of different plant cover formulations to our vineyards.
The preliminary results have been very positive, especially in vineyards located on fresh land, where it also allows the vigor of the plants to be controlled in a very positive way.
Aromatic Precursors in Red Grapes
In collaboration with the University of Castilla La Mancha, we are studying a pioneering method to find the quantity of aromatic precursors contained in red grapes. Precursors are a very important part of the aromatic composition of the final wine, and being able to control their evolution during grape ripening, as well as their content at the time of harvest, can be a very important piece of information to take into account when determining the harvest date and the winemaking strategy.
Soil Mapping
Together with the Basque research institute Neiker, we are mapping the soils where we grow our vineyards, in the Álava municipalities of Labastida and Páganos. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the terroir where our grapes are grown to extract their maximum expression.
Microvinifications
All our studies, and many others, are carried out on a small scale in our microvinification room. There, the grapes are destemmed, vatted in 30L mini-tanks, pressed, and bottled, following strict protocols to observe the experiment results on the final wines. After a short time in the bottle, the wines are evaluated by a tasting panel made up of expert oenologists and colleagues from wineries in the area.
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