Urbina Crianza Rioja, Bodegas Urbina

Description

Urbina Crianza Rioja is a balanced and complex red Rioja produced by the small, traditional, family-owned Rioja House of Urbina Vinos.

The origins of Bodegas Urbina can be traced back to 1870  when Salvador Urbina first began producing wines using the Urbina name. In 1975 the family decided to bottle and age all of the wine made themselves, rather than selling grapes to other wine producers, and the single estate Urbina Rioja wines were created. Today the winery remains family-owned and is run by the fourth generation, Angel, Pedro and Santiago. The Bodega is well-known for ageing their wines for a lot longer than other Rioja producers before releasing them to the market. These wines are a must-try for fans of mature wines – there is no substitute for time!

Bodegas Urbina Vineyards

The winery is located in the village of Cuzcurrita de Rio Tiron on the north-western boundary of DOC Rioja. The estate comprises 75 hectares of vineyards at two main vineyard sites. The first site is near the winery at Cuzcurrita de Rio Turon, an area well-known for producing Riojas capable of ageing for many years ideal for Gran Reservas. The other vineyards are located at Uruñuela, in the heart of the Rioja DOC, which consistently produces wines of great quality and body. The vineyards are planted with 65 hectares of Tempranillo and the remaining 10 hectares are planted with Graciano, Mazuelo and Viura.

Bodegas Urbina produces 300,000 bottles of red Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva. These classic, elegant and stylish red Rioja wines have more recently been joined by a white Crianza, a white Reserva and a new sparkling wine called Valle del Angel Vintage Sparkling which is made from old vine Viura using the ‘Traditional Method’ (Champenoise).

As single-estate wines, all of the wines are made from grapes sourced from estate vineyards. The vineyards are cultivated using traditional methods: harvesting is done by hand and there is little, or no, use of weed killers and pesticides. Additionally, any fertilisers used are organic. Only indigenous yeasts are used in the wine-making process which, combined with the terroir, gives Urbina wines their unique personality. Most recently, there has been a large investment in modern winery equipment, stainless steel fermentation tanks and bottling plant.

Urbina Crianza Vinification

Urbina Crianza is produced from manually harvested grapes from vines at least 20 years old in Urunuela & Cuzcurrita. The wine is a blend of 95% Tempranillo and the remaining 5% is a blend of Graciano and Mazuelo. The wine is aged for 12 months in 95% American and 5% French 225 litre oak casks (2-8 yrs old racked every 6 months) for a minimum of 6 months in bottle before release.