Our history
The grandfather Carmelo left a valuable task in the Diez del Corral family: to preserve the essence of the fine wines from Rioja Alta from his hometown of Anguciana. A valuable and laborious task that today his four grandchildren strive to fulfill. It is not easy to match the courage of the grandfather, who already in his time promoted the winemaking project, making wine and marketing in France the few cántaras he produced, although it was his son Ricardo along with the older grandchildren who a decade ago traveled to the ProWein fair in Düsseldorf with the first pallet of a dream. “It was a test, an experience to see how that 2015 vintage would turn out. And it turned out to be a success, so we decided to take a break to rethink the project, acquire the bottling machine, as well as the half-hundred barrels that are enough to be Rioja winemakers,” recalls Juan Díez del Corral, the younger brother who is in charge of commercialization and wine tourism. Tasks that he also combines with the law practice that he performs from the family’s law firm.
The first vintage
From those first crianza bottles that showed the world, the first vintage, the 2019 of La Piconada, the flagship of the house, came out in 2020, which has the special seal of the new generations of the family. With 90 percent tempranillo, the remaining ten percent is contributed by maturana, a minority variety in Rioja that was incorporated into the Díez del Corral repertoire 17 years ago with a new plantation. And that is why these grapes also had to be destined for a single-varietal, which came out last year with the 2021 vintage to continue with that philosophy of differentiation but preserving the essence of this Rioja Alta territory. “Maturana is our hallmark with which we are gradually building the brand, although depending on the vintage we add more or less to the crianza. For us, a fine Rioja Alta wine must have old barrels, where the protagonist is the grape, and it should be a silky wine, without astringency, aromatic, but easy to drink at the same time. Not like those strong wooden ones that were more common to see in the past. In the end, we have sought to maintain the essence of what is the germ of this project and what our grandfather instilled in us, but also adapted to the new generations and for me the maturana is precisely that revolutionary touch of the wine we seek,” says the young man.
The Piconada
The Piconada vineyard is the emblem of the family. A cross on a stone monolith presides over this plot of barely four hectares planted with tempranillo and maturana tinta from which most of the house’s wines emanate and which is located in the Obarenia, the region bounded to the north by the Montes Obarenes. The El Coterón plot is older, the name given to the second vineyard that feeds the winery and which bears the name of the place where it is located, at the foot of a tributary of the Tirón river. This 1940 vineyard with an area of about three fanegas (0.6 hectares) was recovered by the family to keep those garnacha, mazuelo, graciano, and tempranillo vines in production and whose first vintage, the 2023, has been resting in barrels for a year. This wine, as Juan defines it, “pretends to be an ode to grandfather Carmelo, with a new bottle and label format.” It will still spend at least another year in the bottle before hitting the market. “And that’s because the 2023 vintage was horrible for us because we collected very few grapes as a result of hailstorms. If we usually hover between 21,000 and 22,000 kilos of grapes per year, last season we only collected 6,000 kilos in total, while this harvest we have collected almost 17,000 kilos.”
New wines
In this barrel park also rest other wines that have never been marketed before, such as the gran reserva, which has barely been in the barrel for a year and which will debut with the 2021 vintage. The new rosé has seen the light a few weeks ago and is another of the great bets of Díez del Corral. The idea for its production came after a trip to the DO Cigales, in Valladolid, where the brothers fell in love with the rosés from this area. Although the truth is that it would not have been possible to produce the first rosé of this winery without those viura and garnacha grapes from a plot owned by another winemaker from Anguciana. “There are about 700 bottles that we have produced and part of them will go to our Members Club. The truth is that the reception is being quite good because it is a wine with a lot of body and we wanted to complete our portfolio in which we already had two reds and a white.”
Growing step by step
The winery’s purpose continues to be “very organic growth,” advancing slowly and with a “mid-high positioning” for its wines. Of the 20,000 bottles produced annually, the crianza acts as the financial lung, taking practically about 17,000. “At Díez del Corral, we will continue betting on other lower-production elaborations and, although we want to grow progressively in volume, the idea is to do so with caution. In the end, this is what the winery, its vineyards, and its staff are. What we are clear about is that we want to put the name of our town on the map along with its history and wine heritage,” emphasizes Juan.
This winery, the only one existing in Anguciana today, is located in a pavilion dating back to the late 19th century and whose structure reflects the construction design of the Eiffel School. Proof of this are the iron beams that support the roof. A pavilion that holds several historical milestones within its stone walls, such as the fact that it became a military base of the Italian army during World War II or that during the Industrial Revolution, it was set on fire as a result of the arrival of the famous threshing machines. The roof and much of the structure collapsed, but those iron beams remained intact because a new function was going to be assigned to this construction.
New project
That historical foundation that accompanies Díez del Corral is the same that has moved the family to embark since last December on a new project to recover an old building and its surrounding lands to turn it into the winery’s nerve center. A few meters from the current production center and crossing the traditional winery district of Anguciana is an imposing mansion that maintains its ashlar stone facade and inside, underground, rest three vaults about four meters high and in perfect condition. “We have big plans for this space, from events such as weddings and other celebrations, to turning it into a meeting place with clients and tourists, as well as a room where our Members Club can gather. The potential is enormous, and the rehabilitation work on the ashlar stone walls being carried out by the workers is incredible,” says Juan as he descends some stone steps uncovered after clearing and cleaning work, leading to these vaults where time has not damaged the intact semi-circular arches. Here, several meters underground, the young man of the family plans to produce a few barrels of special wine while another of the vaults will be destined for the winery’s cemetery or library where the most special vintages of the house will be kept.