Spain · Rioja

Bodega del Monge-Garbati

A 2004 family winery in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Rioja Alta, making mineral-driven Tempranillo from clay-limestone parcels beneath the Sierra de Cantabria, with a 125-year-old heritage white vineyard at the estate entrance.

The producer

Bodegas Viña Ane sits in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, a hilltop village on the northern edge of the Ebro valley where the Sierra de Cantabria foothills push limestone soils toward altitude and cooler temperatures than the flat Rioja floor below. Eduardo Monge and Lorena Garbati founded the winery in 2004 and produce four reds and two whites under the Viña Ane label, all from parcels concentrated around this single village address.

The flagship red, Viña Ane Autor, is a Tempranillo assembled from five clay-limestone parcels and aged 11 months in predominantly French oak with small proportions of Hungarian and American barrels. Across the 2016, 2019, and 2021 vintages it shows firm tannins, easy acidity, and a limestone mineral note that carries through the finish. At the estate entrance, a vineyard planted around 1879 still carries Viura, Malvasía, Calagraño, and Teta de Vaca: varieties most Rioja houses had already replaced before Monge and Garbati arrived. They kept the vines and built a white wine, Centenaria, from them.

Known for

Viña Ane Autor, a Tempranillo from five clay-limestone parcels around San Vicente de la Sonsierra, aged 11 months in mixed oak and built for a decade of cellaring.

Notable facts

The story

The Vineyard at the Gate

When Eduardo Monge and Lorena Garbati walked their new property in 2004, the first thing at the gate was a vineyard planted around 1879: rows of Viura, Malvasía, Calagraño, and Teta de Vaca running up the slope toward the winery. By then, most Rioja producers had already pulled out these varieties or reduced them to trace percentages in a blended white. There was no obvious commercial logic for keeping them. Monge and Garbati kept them anyway, decided the age of the vines and the rarity of the mix was worth more than a fresh planting, and eventually made a white wine, Centenaria, from the grapes they produced.

From the atlas

Bodega del Monge-Garbati

At A Glance

Producer: Bodegas Viña Ane (Bodega del Monge-Garbati) Village: San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Rioja Alta Appellation: DOCa Rioja Grapes: Tempranillo (red); Viura, Malvasía, Calagraño, Teta de Vaca (white) Flagship: Viña Ane Autor Range: Four reds, two whites

The Producer

Bodegas Viña Ane sits at the gate of its own history. Eduardo Monge and Lorena Garbati founded the winery in 2004 in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, a hilltop village in Rioja Alta on the northern edge of the Ebro valley, beneath the Sierra de Cantabria. The winery operates under the DOCa Rioja classification and produces four red wines and two whites, all sold under the Viña Ane label.

The estate's most important fact is also its most visible one: a 125-year-old vineyard occupies the entrance to the property, planted with heritage white varieties, Viura, Malvasía, Calagraño, and Teta de Vaca, that most Rioja houses had already grafted over or blended into anonymity long before Monge and Garbati arrived. They kept the vines and built around them. The white wine Centenaria is assembled from that old vineyard. The flagship red, Viña Ane Autor, is a Tempranillo from five parcels on clay-limestone soils, aged 11 months in oak and built for cellaring.

Place

San Vicente de la Sonsierra sits on a limestone ridge above the Ebro, on the northern boundary of Rioja Alta where the Sierra de Cantabria deflects Atlantic weather inland. The foothills of Mount Toloño rise behind the village, and the soils here are predominantly clay over limestone, a combination that drains cold air downward and retains just enough moisture in dry years to support slow, even ripening in Tempranillo.

The altitude and northern orientation keep temperatures lower than the flatter central Rioja floor, and the limestone influence shows directly in the mineral register of wines from this address. In Viña Ane Autor, that limestone hum appears across every documented vintage, not as a marketing claim but as a consistent aromatic and structural signature in the glass.

Soil And Site

The five parcels that supply Autor are on clay-limestone soils around San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Clay retains moisture through summer heat and slows alcohol accumulation; limestone contributes the mineral finish that appears consistently in the 2016, 2019, and 2021 tasting records. The 125-year-old heritage vineyard at the estate entrance grows in the same soil type. Old vines on limestone in a cool-altitude Rioja village tend to yield fruit with concentration and length rather than early approachability, and Autor's profile across three vintages bears that out.

Story

When Eduardo Monge and Lorena Garbati founded Bodegas Viña Ane in 2004, the conventional path in Rioja was to acquire land, plant Tempranillo, and sell into a market already saturated with oak-aged reds. Monge and Garbati did acquire Tempranillo parcels, and they do age in oak. What they did differently was treat the pre-existing heritage vineyard at the entrance of the property as an asset rather than an obstacle. That 125-year-old planting was a record of what San Vicente de la Sonsierra grew before the twentieth century reshaped Rioja viticulture around a single red grape and a single barrel programme.

Keeping those vines meant maintaining varieties, Viura, Malvasía, Calagraño, Teta de Vaca, with no established commercial market in modern Rioja, and building a white wine, Centenaria, around them. It meant that the winery kept Viura, Malvasía, Calagraño, and Teta de Vaca alongside the red programme. The red programme, anchored by Autor, developed alongside that older white, and the house now carries both the century-old vine heritage and a modern, parcel-assembled Tempranillo in a single range.

Vineyards And Cellar

The Autor parcels are farmed on clay-limestone soils across five sites around San Vicente de la Sonsierra. No single vineyard dominates; the wine is a village-level assembly, which allows the winemaking to chase a consistent mineral and structural profile rather than the character of one parcel. After fermentation, the wine rests in oak for 11 months: predominantly French barrels, supplemented by 5% Hungarian and 5% American oak. French oak at this ratio supplies vanilla and spice without the more pronounced coconut and dill character of American barrels at higher percentages. The small proportions of Hungarian and American wood add aromatic complexity without shifting the wine's overall profile away from French oak character.

The result across vintages is a wine with firm tannins, enough acidity for extended cellaring, and a mineral finish anchored by the limestone in the soil. The 2021 is expected suitable for cellaring through 2030.

Wines

Viña Ane Autor is the red that carries most of the documented range character. A purple-black Tempranillo with weight and viscosity on entry, it shows a different face in each vintage while maintaining consistent mineral architecture. The 2016 led with red currant, black raspberry, and anise, then moved to a nutmeg-scented, spicy finish with a limestone hum underneath. The 2019 opened with perfumed raspberry and black cherry, seasoned by baking spice and peppercorns, and finished with firm, fine tannins and an easy lift of acidity. The 2021 showed minerality and toasted notes on the nose, with firm red fruit, plums, and dark cherries driving the palate.

Beyond Autor, the range includes additional reds and the white wine assembled from the estate's 125-year-old heritage vineyard planted with Viura, Malvasía, Calagraño, and Teta de Vaca. Centenaria is not a conventional Rioja white; the grape mix predates the modern DOCa era, and the wine carries varieties rarely seen together in a single bottling in the region today. Individual names for the remaining reds are not confirmed.

In The Glass

Viña Ane Autor opens with fruit from the cool altitude of San Vicente de la Sonsierra: raspberry and black cherry in the 2019, moving to red currant and black raspberry in the older 2016. The spice character, baking spice, peppercorns, anise, nutmeg, comes from the combination of Tempranillo grown on limestone and 11 months of mixed oak. In the mouth, the tannins are fine and firm rather than grippy, and the acidity carries through to the finish rather than fading at the mid-palate. The 2016 finishes with a spicy, limestone-inflected note that is mineral and dry. The 2019 carries its acidity through a long, even close. The 2021, with purple-black density and visible weight, is built for time in bottle rather than early drinking. Across all three years, the finish registers limestone: a cool, mineral dryness that comes from the soil and persists beyond the fruit.

A Bottle To Understand It

Viña Ane Autor is the first bottle to choose. It is a Tempranillo assembled from five clay-limestone parcels around San Vicente de la Sonsierra, aged 11 months in predominantly French oak, with the weight and tannin depth to develop over several years in bottle. In the glass it gives perfumed red and black fruit, firm acidity, fine tannins, and a finish that carries both spice from the oak and a limestone mineral note from the soil. Buy a current vintage and set it aside for three to five years, or open the 2019 now for the fuller aromatic picture. This is not a wine for early, casual drinking; it is made for the cellar and rewards patience with greater depth and integration.

Anecdote

When Eduardo Monge and Lorena Garbati walked their new property in 2004, the first thing at the gate was a vineyard planted around 1879, rows of Viura, Malvasía, Calagraño, and Teta de Vaca running up the slope toward the winery. By then, most Rioja producers had already pulled out these varieties or reduced them to a small percentage in a blended white. There was no clear commercial logic for keeping them. Monge and Garbati kept them anyway, decided that the age of the vines and the rarity of the mix was worth more than a fresh planting, and eventually made a white wine, Centenaria, from the grapes they produced.

Final Word

Bodegas Viña Ane is a small San Vicente de la Sonsierra winery with a precise and mineral point of view. Autor is the bottle that earns that description across three vintages: limestone soils, a cool northern village, firm tannins, and a finish that does not let go quickly. The heritage vineyard at the entrance is the house's most unusual feature, and Centenaria, the white assembled from those pre-modern varieties, is the clearest evidence that Monge and Garbati did not build the winery from a template.

Sources

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