The concept of estate distinguishes Familia Martínez Bujanda. Three of our wineries, Finca Valpiedra (Rioja); Finca Montepedroso (Rueda) and Finca Antigua (Castilla-La Mancha), respond to this idea which is by no means new, despite its scarce development in Spain, but which has distinguished some of the best wines of Spain for centuries.
Vino de pago, estate wine, in Spain corresponds to several international meanings, such as ‘cru’ in Bordeaux, ‘climat’ in Burgundy, ‘gewächs’ in the Rhine or ‘sori’ in Piedmont, which some of the best wines in the world incorporate in their labels. Perhaps the best known estate in the world is the ‘climat’ of La Romaneé Conti, with a surface area of barely one hectare and whose wines have achieved mythical status.
Familia Martinez Bujanda, with Finca Valpiedra, is a member of the Association of Grandes Pagos de España, a ‘vindictive’ movement that arose in 2000 to ‘rebel’ against the extension of the industrialized winegrowing model with productions that mix grapes from different origins to guarantee standard productions, of quality why not, but that do not reflect the personality of the terroirs or the real diversity of the wine-growing regions.
Spanish legislation has always lagged behind and, despite the fact that the 2003 Law of the Vine and Wine Industry already placed the pago wines at the top of the quality pyramid, for example In Rioja there are no regulations for the development of qualified single-vineyard wines.
PriorySpain’s other appellation of origin, together with Rioja, has been able to develop this legislation and, in addition to villa wines (zoning of the different regions of the appellation of origin), has placed estate wines on a higher level, with more demanding production and winemaking requirements. In Rioja, those of you who follow current events know that there are movements in this direction, calling for greater differentiation of wines associated with terroir, although we will see if they finally result in some kind of distinction or recognition.
In any case, the estate spirit defends wines produced in a specific terroir and reflecting the unmistakable personality of its soil, subsoil and climate. In the wines from our estates, Finca Valpiedra, Finca Montepedroso and Finca Antigua, there are no ‘fixes’: the vintages, the weather, condition their quality to the extreme, for better and for ‘not so good‘.
The grapes used in our wines are those of the corresponding estate, so our technical team works without the possibility of resorting to grapes from other origins to fix a supposed ‘mess’. Thus, in recent years we have had extraordinary and easy vintages because of the weather (2010, 2011, 2012) and other more complicated ones, such as 2013, when we did not bottle Finca Valpiedra because we considered that we did not meet our minimum standards.
Of course, we respect all business models, but in our case, our commitment to estate wines obliges us to work to the maximum with the concept of selection: in the winery, but above all in the field, with continuous practices during the growing cycle -especially yield containment- to guarantee as far as possible that, in adverse conditions, our wines will be up to the task.
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