{"id":219,"date":"2019-02-05T08:14:31","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T08:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.independentfamilywineries.com\/?p=219"},"modified":"2024-12-17T17:30:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T16:30:14","slug":"senorio-de-villarica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/senorio-de-villarica\/","title":{"rendered":"Se\u00f1or\u00edo de Villarica"},"content":{"rendered":"

As is the case with so many other families from the Rioja region, the maternal grandfather, Pablo, a vine-grower, and the paternal grandfather, Florentino, a winemaker, formed the perfect \u2018alliance\u2019, sowing the seed for Se\u00f1or\u00edo de Villarrica, which led them to sell from wineskins to bottles at local markets. However, it was Florentino, the father of the present generation, who built a new winery and extended the sale of Se\u00f1or\u00edo de Villarrica throughout the country and even took the first steps in exportation. Nowadays, Se\u00f1or\u00edo de Villarrica has two wineries, one in San Asensio, the original location, and another in Herv\u00edas, a spectacular \u2018chateau\u2019 surrounded by 40 hectares of vineyards featuring the latest technology for making and ageing wine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As Ismael Fern\u00e1ndez, the person responsible for the family\u2019s vine growing reminds us, \u201cour raison d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em> lies in the vineyards.\u201d Se\u00f1or\u00edo de Villarrica makes wine exclusively from grapes grown on the estate\u2019s vines<\/strong>, from the 60 hectares which are primarily located in San Asensio, but also in Briones, Haro, Sajazarra and Anguciana, and from the 40 hectares in Herv\u00edas and Ba\u00f1ares. A total of one hundred hectares.<\/p>\n

The winery makes wines with a marked Rioja Alta profile, influenced by the proximity of the Sonsierra region and by the most Atlantic and extreme areas of the Western Rioja Alta<\/strong>. The crianza, making up some 400,000 bottles of the 550\/600,000 which are produced each year, is the main wine, which is looked after meticulously both on the vine and inside the winery: \u201cIt is our workhorse, my brother Pablo\u2019s great obsession, since it is this wine that holds up the \u2018building.\u2019\u201d The four brothers have not had things easy despite inheriting the winery and vineyards. In 2005, they started out at the new winery in Herv\u00edas, having made a large investment in the latest technology in small tanks, wine barrels and, of course, the best barrels for making great wines. In 2011, at the height of the crisis, the premises went up in flames: \u201cBy 2013 we were up and running again, with all four brothers at the helm because we come from a winemaking tradition and we don\u2019t know how to do anything else.\u201d Se\u00f1or\u00edo de Villarrica has the \u2018honour\u2019 of being the winery to have sold the most expensive wine from the Rioja region, and from Spain, at least at that time: 1200 euros per bottle, the 2001 Family Selection, of which 890 bottles were produced. <\/strong>\u201cWe took a barrel sample, which had aged for 24 months, to Custodio L\u00f3pez Zamarra and he called us to ask us what it was,\u201d Ismael recounts. \u201cHe organised a tasting with 24 great wines from around the world and we came sixth\u2026 the wine named its own price.\u201d The 2010 vintage of a potential new Family Selection is in bottles and that of the 2016 vintage is in wooden barrels.<\/p>\n

The wine comes from a small plot above an estate, planted by the grandfather of the current generation, in San Asensio, in 1911, four hectares which, together with other older plantations from 1926 and 1930, make up the twelve hectares from which the special wines are produced: Delicia de Baco and Marvelous: \u201cThey have very low yields, highly limited productions, but they give us wines with great character,\u201d <\/strong>points out Ismael Fern\u00e1ndez. Great wines which enhance the extensive range at Se\u00f1or\u00edo de Villarica: \u201cThe credit is not ours, but rather that of our grandfather and great-grandfathers, who chose the best slopes and soil for planting.\u201d \u201cOur only job,\u201d continues Ismael, \u201cis not to \u2018ruin\u2019 what nature chooses to offer us each year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As is the case with so many other families from the Rioja region, the maternal grandfather, Pablo, a vine-grower, and the paternal grandfather, Florentino, a winemaker, formed the perfect \u2018alliance\u2019, [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wineries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independentfamilywineries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}