Terroir, terroir and climat: the practice of Familia Martínez Bujanda

After the ‘review’ of concepts related to ‘terroir’ in the previous post, we would like to dwell on the meaning that this way of understanding viticulture has for the Martínez Bujanda Family.
We work with the concept of ‘terroir’, of terroir, in all our estates. In Rioja, at Finca Valpiedra we have carried out a long and careful process of knowledge and selection of plots in the 80 hectares of vineyards that we cultivate in one of the four great meanders of the Ebro as it passes through this wide and diverse appellation of origin.
Finca Valpiedra has a own microclimateThe area is conditioned by the proximity to the Ebro River between Fuenmayor and Cenicero and by the influences of the Sierra de Cantabria, to the north (Atlantic), and the Sierra de Demanda (continental), to the south; a different floorand alluvial and boulders; native grape varietiesmostly Tempranillo, which has been adapted to the area for more than a thousand years; and a own concept of sustainable viticulture and selection of plots according to small variations within the same environment.
Finca Valpiedra is broadly distributed in three terraces that go down to the river, in fourteen different plots. This categorization gave rise to Songs of ValpiedraThe higher, clayey areas, which allow the vines to sink their roots deeper in search of minerals and added nutrients, are reserved for our reserva, a 100% Tempranillo wine from the alluvial soils closest to the river. Valpiedra Estate.
Finca Valpiedra wines are landscape wines, integrated into the environment and, as our technical director, Lauren Rosillo, likes to argue, “when a landscape is beautiful, even if there are no scientific studies to prove it, that beauty is transmitted to the wines”.
Finca Antigua, in La Mancha, is another concept of terroir, of multiple terroirs. It is a vast extension of 1,000 hectares, 421 of them vineyards, which the Martínez Bujanda family acquired in 1999 and inaugurated as a winery in 2003.
We have a loam soil, which combines sand, silt and clay in almost equal parts; a differential altitude of 900 meters and, above all, an environment, a mountain landscape, which gives a balsamic, even minty, character to all our wines as a hallmark of the house.
We work with native varieties, such as Tempranillo, Garnacha and Viura, as well as international varieties that are fully adapted to these almost limiting growing conditions due to the altitude and the temperature range (night and day and winter and summer) and with an extraordinary work of parceling .
The result is our collection of varietals, which share the landscape, the ‘terroir’ of Finca Antigua, within the diversity and personality offered by each type of grape.
A special case is our Clavis wine, a wine from the Pico Garbanzo plot , one of the highest and which we could define as a climat where eight varieties coexist in just four hectares. Clavis will ‘die’ when the vines are no longer productive because there will be no replanting, but the vines themselves will mark the beginning, the fullness and the end of this wine, which we understand as the ultimate concept of ‘terroir’ and ‘vino de pago’.
Montepedroso Farm is our latest bet, in this case with a unique wine of the same name, which we produce in the 25 hectares we have in Rueda, an exceptional area for white wines.The vineyards are marked by gravelly soils, an extreme continental climate and a high altitude (750 meters) capable of giving us a purebred wine, which we make with the greatest possible care to reflect the personality of the best Ruedas.
In short, terroir, respect for the landscape and the tradition that surrounds us, is a philosophy that our consumers will find in any of our Finca Valpiedra, Finca Antigua and Finca Montepedroso wines.