Bodega Martínez Lacuesta

A historic winery from La Rioja with an international reputation.

The origins of Bodega Martínez Lacuesta go back to 1895, when Félix Martínez Lacuesta started selling wine in La Vega, Haro.

A man with a vision for the future, the founder of Bodega Martínez Lacuesta was the first president of the “Asociación Nacional de Viticultores e Industrias del Vino” (National Association of Winemakers and Wine Industries), and of the “Sindicato de Vinos de La Rioja” (Rioja Wine Syndicate). Besides, he was one the driving forces behind the creation of the “Denominación de Origen La Rioja”, back in the year 1926.

At the beginning of the XXth century, the then 20-year-old Emiliano martínez Lacuesta, a relative of the founder, began exporting to the Americas. He also opened the first branch office of the company in Madrid, as a result of which Bodega Martínez Lacuesta later became a Purveyor of the Royal Household of Spain. In the 1930s, a Catalan citizen who was fleeing from Spanish Civil War gave the company a traditional vermouth formula as a token of gratitude for having helped him to escape the conflict. Nowadays, the famed Martínez Lacuesta Vermouth is still made following the same formula.

Located in Haro, La Rioja Alta, the vineyards of Bodega Martínez Lacuesta are scattered across the right banks of the Ebro river, an area with a Mediterranean-Atlantic climate at 400-500 metres above sea level. They are planted with the red varieties Tempranillo, Grenache, Graciano and Mazuela (the local name of Carignan). The white varieties are Viura and Verdejo.

The vinification space is divided into two areas. The first includes state-of-the-art stainless steel tanks, in which the grapes are fermented and macerated under strict temperature control. More traditional in character, the second area contains American and French oak vats, as well as two steel diposits.

The barrel room is quite spectacular. It includes 8,000 oak barrels, 90% American oak and 10% French oak, where wines are aged for variable periods of time. The barrels are stacked in five levels, which allows the wines to be transferred by gravity. That favours natural oxigenation, a fact which results in more expressive and rounder wines

There is little doubt that, as regards traditional Rioja character, few wineries can compete with Bodega Martínez Lacuesta.