La Esencia del Vino visiter la cave Martinez Lacuesta, un domaine viticole familial situé à Haro

La Esencia del Vino visit the winery Martinez Lacuesta, a family winery located in Haro:

Martinez Lacuesta was founded in 1895 by Felix Martinez Lacuesta and his brothers, who began selling wine and soft drinks on Calle La Vega, in the center of Haro. In 1902 they moved to the street Ventilla. With the growth of the village, the winery is in the heart and are disadvantages as not being able to download either the grape, the inability to expand the number of barrels, ... thus, they decide to sell and move to its present location on the outskirts the town in which they take four years, while officially opened in 2011.

The winery is still owned by the family and now directs the third generation winemaker and is of the fourth generation. It is financed only with the family finances. They have a branch at the site of San Sebastian de los Reyes, Madrid.

They own 55 hectares of vineyards that give them 350,000 kilos of grapes. The rest, up to 1,000,000 kilos that develop in the cellar, they buy from growers in the area.

They export 15% of production in all countries, particularly the U.S.

By accessing the winery, have a small room that expose items that tell the story of the hold over time.

Martinez Lacuesta is the only winery in La Rioja that produces vermouth, since 1897.

Lourdes, Martinez Lacuesta Social Area Manager, tells us in detail what the vermouth and how it is made:

The vermouth is white wine flavored with herbs, of which the most important is the absinthe. 24 herbs are macerated in white wine in old American oak barrels. Once the herbs are macerated more white wine is added, 12% sugar and citric acid to correct the acidity. If the red vermouth is added caramel.

The first vermuth they produced was red with a label stamped in gold. They have now regained that old label but not this gold stamping.

If the traditional vermouth goes into French oak barrels for 7 months we get the Reserva vermouth. There is also another vermouth that is limited edition with 14 months in oak.

In the cellar, they advise us to take the vermuth very cold, ice and orange because it highlights the bitterness.

In the hallway leading to the cellar, exposed photos of all the winery owners throughout its history.

The winery has 25 steel tanks 35,000 kilograms each and four of 70,000 kg. The floor of the cellar is built under the courtyard, which ensures comfortable when receiving the grape. The grape falls from the trailer directly into the hopper and then to the stemmer.

The winery also have wooden vats capacity 10,000 kilos each, seven French oak and American oak seven, where cleaning is done traditionally. Here is where they make their author wines because the aromas give the wine. The author wine, instead of arriving at the winery in 5000 kilos as trailers for other wines, it comes in boxes of grapes selected and passes over a sorting table and much smaller stemmer. It's all a lot more careful.

Then we went to the barrel area:

The 8000 barrels are placed at 5 heights, the traditional height. Barrels area is 6000 square meters, 12 meters high and above have the vineyard which is what regulates the temperature constant 15 degrees naturally. He came down from the tanks for a few pipes on the wall and fill the barrels.

Lourdes tells us that the racking is carried out manually and explains that this process is:

They remove the cap from the barrel up, he placed a tap with a steel pipe to another barrel to put down, by gravity, empties the above and fills below. When the wine reaches the height of the cap are the dregs and must avoid falling into the new barrel. To prevent the sediment from falling, tilting the barrel, and the wine that will fall is monitored cast into a glass and checking it in the light of a candle. With this type of light is seen clearly if the wine has grounds or not. Only four wineries that make the racking in this way.

The plug hand lining it with cattails (reeds) to avoid some degree of evaporation.

The aging time set for its wines are superior to the dictates of the regulatory council:

• Young (semicrianza) 6 months in oak
• Crianza: 18 months in oak barrels and 6 months in bottle
• Reserva: two years in oak and three years in bottle
• Gran Reserva: three years and six months in barrel and five years of bottle.

The wines that can be found are:

Martinez Lacuesta, since 1908, the most recognized. With this brand we can find their Reserva and Gran Reserva wines.

Campeador, a Reserva which was recorded in 1916.

The author wines that are Felix Martinez Lacuesta, which was taken in the 1995 centenary and Ventilla 71, named after the street where once were located the winery.

The newest and most innovative is called Hinia, brought to the opening of the current winery in 2011. So called because the winery is located in a place called "the way of the hineas", a mollusk that formerly had its habitat in the stretch of the river Ebro was going through that place.

To end this article, we highlight also that the winery tour is free.

Lourdes checked us in an extraordinary way. She is a very attentive and dynamic that explains everything in great detail and with many anecdotes that make the visit very pleasant awhile. After the visit, you can taste the vermouth that made you will definitely recommend you because you will realize that it has nothing to do with what we are all used to take.