Bodegas Ysios: Rioja’s 21st Century Leading Light

Bodegas Ysios was founded in 2001 in one of the most outstanding natural beauty spots of the Rioja Alavesa region. Created to become one of QDO Rioja’s leading lights of the 21st century, it merges perfectly with the landscape where it sits at the foot of the mountains protected from the northwest winds by the ‘Sierra de Cantabria’. The bodega both surprises and fascinates those who visit this privileged setting, regarded as one of the best vine-growing regions in the world.

Santiago Calatrava, its creator and designer, personally supervised down to the smallest detail of what was to become his first bodega, with the aim of creating a space which would embrace new, innovative wines. Wines made using the very best vines from the very best vineyards, owned by the winery in Rioja, carefully selected and set aside for that purpose. The bodega, with an eye firmly on the 21st century, brings together the thousand-year-old tradition of the winemaking landscape which surrounds it, one of the best and most popular quality-grape production regions in Europe, and a vision of even greater quality wines, with minimalist and selective vinification and ageing processes. This is the character of ‘Ysios’, a contemporary ‘reserva’, boasting an excellent balance between hints of fruit and toasted wood, which both exploits and respects the singular personality of the vineyard.

The Sierra de Cantabria’s effect

Bodegas Ysios owns 75 hectares of vineyard planted with 30 to 35 year-old Tempranillo, grown predominantly in clay-chalk terrain, poor in organic material, which consists of gentle furrows. Its location favours good ventilation as well as excellent drainage.

The effect of the ‘Sierra de Cantabria’ on the climate is to protect the Riojan vineyard from the influence of the Bay of Biscay. The role of this mountain range, with peaks which easily surpass altitudes of over 1,300 metres, is crucial, acting as it does as a bioclimatic barrier. Additionally, its high elevation protects the region from the cold and humid northwest winds, while the vineyard’s orientation, at the foot of the range, whose gentle slopes intertwine with the terraces of the River Ebro, maximises the benefit of the sun’s rays per vine ensuring optimum grape ripening.

Impressive building, extraordinary terroir and superior quality wines

From this bodega, with its impressive building and extraordinary terroir the winery has on offer a Reserva and several special editions created in collaboration with companies from the fashion, culture and gastronomy sectors. These wines have been pampered both in the vineyard and the bodega, a consequence clearly visible in their superior quality displaying a superb balance between fruit and wood.

A quality which is also appreciated beyond Spanish shores, as Bodegas Ysios exports 34 percent of its production, mainly to countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the US, China, Korea, Australia, Italy, Belgium, and Germany.