Remirez de Ganuza
Remirez de Ganuza, run from Samaniego in the Rioja Alavesa, farms 76 hectares across 246 parcels spread over nine municipalities. Fernando Remírez de Ganuza founded the winery in 1989, after twenty years working as a vineyard broker in Rioja; the first vintage followed in 1991. 70 percent of the vines are over 70 years old, with individual vines standing for more than a century. Since 2019 José Ramón Urtasun has led the estate, with Jesús Mendoza as winemaker. The wines grow on limestone soils at the foot of the Sierra Cantabria and age for a long time in barrel, the Gran Reserva for 38 months.
From vineyard broker to winery owner
Fernando Remírez de Ganuza (1951–2024) came from Navarre, from a family in meat production, and had trained as a technical draughtsman. For twenty years he worked as a vineyard broker in Rioja, getting to know the region's parcels and their microclimates. In 1989 he founded his own winery in Samaniego in the Rioja Alavesa, with the first vintage following in 1991. In the founding year he built the first mechanical sorting table in Spain; there were hardly any models to follow, as they "existed only in books, not in reality."
246 parcels across nine municipalities
The 76 hectares are divided into 246 individually worked parcels, a mosaic of old plantings and varying microclimates. The Tempranillo grows on the limestone soils of Rioja Alavesa and brings the minerality that runs through all the house's wines. The largest single plot is Viña Coqueta, eleven hectares below the winery, planted in 1975; it supplies the heart of the Gran Reserva and, since 2005, a wine of its own in selected years.
Shoulders and tips
Selection begins with the individual grape bunch. Remirez de Ganuza separates the Hombros, the shoulders, from the Puntas, the tips: the shoulders get more sun, ripen more intensely and go into the Gran Reserva and the Fincas de Ganuza Reserva, the tips into the entry-level wine. For the Transnocho, the grapes are pressed slowly overnight, yielding high extraction with little oxidation.
Cellar ageing and leadership since 2019
After harvest the grapes rest at cold temperature for 24 hours before being processed; fermentation takes place in neutral stainless-steel and concrete tanks. The Gran Reserva blends 88 percent Tempranillo with 10 percent Graciano and two percent Viura and Malvasia, from vines averaging over 60 years old, and ages for 38 months in new French barriques. The Fincas de Ganuza Reserva comes from younger plantings on the foothills of the Sierra Cantabria, 25 to 40 years old, and spends 22 months in barrel, 30 percent of it new French oak, the rest once-used. The white wines from Viura and Malvasia get ten months of barrel ageing and seven years of bottle ageing, which give them their saline character and longevity.
Since 2019 the winery has belonged to José Ramón Urtasun, born in 1976, who also runs it. Winemaker Jesús Mendoza has worked at the house since 1994 and has been head oenologist since 2001; in 2024 and 2025 he was named best Rioja winemaker.