Gómez Cruzado "The boutique of the Station District"

"La Esencia del Vino" visited Bodega Gomez Cruzado, a family winery located in Haro:

The tour begins in the courtyard where Casilda tells us the story of the winery:

Gómez Cruzado is the third oldest winery in Haro and seventh oldest in La Rioja, dating from 1886, which now is 127 years old. It is located in the area of the station where there are so many wineries, formerly this was the industrial de Haro. At that time, served as storage cellars wine, because, there was no current culture of aging and bottling of wine. It was considered a food, as most of the people working in the field and elaborated in their homes. At the beginning of the wine trade, was stored in the cellars for further transport by rail to France, among other places. It was transported in tanks called bocoye. The importance of these wooden casks is, thanks to them, they realize that the wine acquires different properties due to the course of that journey. They are the first steps of barrel aging.

The wine culture in Spain was born as a result of the phylloxera plague, from the U.S., European vineyards damaging. When 50% of the vineyards of France are destroyed, the French they seek a place to stock up and choose to Haro for their optimal conditions for growing grapes, by the proximity to France and the easy access to rail for transport. The French already had a culture of aging, bottling and marketing with wine and introduced this culture into Spain. It made the first wine fine, in 1912 and thereafter, gradually spreads throughout Spain the current wine culture. Gómez Cruzado was founded in 1886 by the Duke of Moctezuma, Angel Gómez Cruzado Arteche, of Mexican origin. After and during 40 years, it belongs to the family Gómez Cruzado, from which comes the present name of the winery. Then passed into the hands of several investors until finally the family Baños, also of Mexican origin and roots Rioja enters the shareholders of the winery in the early 90s and in 2003 was made with 100% of it.

Casilda then told us the selection process of Grapes of Gómez Cruzado:

Gómez Cruzado is a very small family winery with small production, which seeks to make wines very defined and very accurately. They control 40 hectares of vineyards. You buy directly grape growers, who are their trusted suppliers. The advantage of buying their grape growers every year is that they let you select the grapes they need, which is critical. Now they are also beginning to work with cooperatives in the area. All the grapes arrive at the winery in boxes, thus selected reaches far and better able to move to the selection table.

Virtually the entire grape is tempranillo grape is best suited to the climate and soil of La Rioja Alta roughly 90% and the rest Grenache and Graciano.

The biggest investment made in Gómez Cruzado was in 2003, with a complete remodeling in plant development, acquiring new stainless steel tanks latest technology for the first fermentation of wine. Gómez Cruzado advocates a La Rioja wine with a touch of modernity.

In the adjacent room, strategic location for aging and storage of wine by the thick walls and air conditioning system, constant temperature of 16°C.

The second fermentation, malolactic fermentation, takes place in concrete vats because, by their optimal temperature, makes the wine very well and decant further cleaning is more comfortable.

From the vats, the wine is poured into the barrels to stabilize and aging. The winery has a 60% French oak barrels and 40% American oak barrels and all barrels are toasted media, because they prefer the wood is very subtle accompaniment, never stand out from the fruit in its aromas. They use different coopers because even within medium toasted also appreciate nuances and differences between each other.

They have a total of 350 oak barrels that change every five years.

The aging times they set for their wines are:

• Crianza Wine which is for one year in oak barrels and one year in bottle.
• Reserve Wine is 20 months in oak barrels and two years in bottle.
• Grand Reserve Wine . It may be three years in barrel and two in bottle or 3 and 3.
• Honorable, their author wine, carries a different processing, all processing is done in French oak barrels for one year and after one or two years in bottle depending on the vintage.

Annual production is about 200,000 bottles.

Wine marketing is essentially export, especially to Mexico. That is the reason that their brands have faded part of the national market, as in previous years were considered premium brands (Viña Andrea, ...). Now they want to regain that reputation here in Spain.

After the visit we went to the tasting area where we Casilda described Gomez Cruzado wines :

• Crianza 2008: from the vineyards to pick grapes selected cooler to make a light and fruity wine, easy to drink. Leaves a refreshing mouthfeel and is very well balanced in acidity.
• Reserve Wine: In this notice the slightly more mature fruit and a long finish, the tour has more complexity mouth. It is also still very fruity and with correct acidity. A wine a little more dense and complex to enjoy with food. Appears marked a wood barrel clean very new.
• Honorable: powerful wine, thought rather to desserts. With controlled acidity, difficult for this type of processing longer. At a very affordable price to be a author wine. An unbeatable value for money.

A curious detail that you can not miss, in Bodega Gómez Cruzado performed on Sundays, introductory courses the detection of wine faults. A very innovative idea, fun and interesting. Unfortunately, we could not attend the course due to scheduling problems. More information about the course, tastings, tours, ... on the website of the winery.

We can not end this report without emphasizing the friendliness and warmth received from the staff of Bodegas Gomez Cruzado, both in planning and during and after the visit. Naomi and Casilda are very attentive and made our visit a pleasure.