🍷 La Rioja Alta, S.A.

La Rioja Alta, S.A. is a winery in the Barrio de la Estación (Station District) of Haro, in the Rioja appellation. According to the house, it was founded in 1890 by five Riojan and Basque families as the Sociedad Vinícola de La Rioja Alta; its first president was a woman, Saturnina García Cid y Gárate. In 1904 Alfredo Ardanza proposed merging his own winery into the company, and in 1941 it took its present name.

According to the house, its main Rioja wines are Gran Reserva 890 and Gran Reserva 904, whose names recall the years 1890 and 1904, Viña Ardanza (registered in 1942), Viña Arana and Viña Alberdi. The group also owns Torre de Oña in Rioja Alavesa, Lagar de Fornelos in Rías Baixas and Áster in Ribera del Duero.

According to the house, the first winemaker was a Frenchman, Monsieur Vigier, and Reserva 1890 was his first wine; the Reserva 1904 was made to mark the merger. The Viña Ardanza brand was registered on 28 September 1942, Viña Arana replaced the old 6º Año in 1974, and Viña Alberdi replaced Tercer Año in 1978.

The house says the group settled in O Rosal, Pontevedra, in 1988 by acquiring Fernández Cervera Hermanos, which became Lagar de Fornelos, and in 1995 bought Torre de Oña in Páganos, in Rioja Alavesa, with a winery, a palatial mansion and 45 hectares of vineyards. A new cellar was built in Labastida in 1996; the first vines of Áster in Ribera del Duero were planted in 1990 and its winery was built in 2000.

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. The numbers 890 and 904 are brand names, not ages; the ageing is shown by the words Reserva or Gran Reserva. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.