🍷 Eguren Ugarte

Eguren Ugarte is a family winery in Laguardia, in the Rioja Alavesa part of the Rioja appellation; Wikidata places it in Páganos. According to the house, the family has been growing grapes since 1870 — the year also given in Wikidata — and is now in its sixth generation. In 1989 Vitorino Eguren, of the fifth generation, built the present winery on the family's largest farm, Sotovin, in Páganos, with some 2,000 metres of underground galleries.

According to the house, it is an independent, self-financed winery that grows its own grapes in Rioja Alavesa and makes Rioja wines such as the Martín Cendoya Reserva, Anastasio and a carbonic maceration red. The estate also has a hotel among the vineyards.

According to the house, the winery stands at the foot of the Sierra Cantabria, surrounded by vineyards, and the family farms 93 hectares of vines, combining traditional methods with recent viticultural techniques. The house describes the cellar as a winery “buried in the land”, with 2,000 metres of caves.

Besides Martín Cendoya and Anastasio, the house names a Malvasia, a red Reserva, a Crianza rosado and white Reserva and Crianza wines. The estate's hotel has rooms, a barrel room, a restaurant and a function room for events, and the winery is open to visitors.

Rioja is a protected designation of origin (PDO) and Spain's first DOCa. The label shows the ageing: a red Reserva is aged for at least 36 months, at least 12 of them in barrel and 6 in bottle, and a Gran Reserva for at least 60 months, at least 24 in barrel and 24 in bottle. The wine may be bottled only within the zone.

Why it matters to you. Reserva and Gran Reserva guarantee minimum ageing under the rules, while names such as “Martín Cendoya” are the house's own. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.