Bodegas La Horra

The story

The vine growers and the Rioja house

Mario Rotllant Solá had spent years looking at Ribera del Duero before anything came together. Bodegas Roda's reputation in Rioja was built on old Tempranillo and careful cellar work, and Rotllant Solá was not looking to replant from scratch in a new region. He wanted a family already farming it. The Balbás brothers in La Horra were exactly that: a vine-growing family whose parcels had been in continuous production for generations, long before the Ribera del Duero denomination was formally drawn. When the two sides reached an agreement, Roda's team got access to 40 hectares of established old-vine land without a single replanting. The Balbás brothers got a winemaking partner whose first principle was that the vine, not the cellar, should do the heavy lifting. The winery that Carme Pinós eventually built into the hillside above the village expressed the same logic in concrete: something serious, mostly invisible, drawing its character from the ground beneath it.

From the atlas

Bodegas La Horra

At A Glance

• Location: La Horra, Burgos province, Ribera del Duero DO
• Grape: Tinta del País (Tempranillo)
• Range: Corimbo, Corimbo I
• Viticulture: Organic
• Winery: Underground facility, ground-source cooling, passive ventilation

The Producer

Bodegas La Horra is a red wine estate in the village of La Horra, in the Burgos province section of Ribera del Duero. It was born from an agreement between Mario Rotllant Solá, president of Bodegas Roda in Rioja, and brothers Pedro and Pablo Balbás, a family of vine growers whose connection to the village and its parcels runs back through generations. Roda brought winemaking conviction; the Balbás brothers brought 40 hectares of established vines spread across La Horra and the neighbouring municipality of Roa. Every bottle is Tinta del País, the local name for Tempranillo, and the range divides along a single axis: vine age.

The winery itself, designed by Catalan architect Carme Pinós, sits partly underground, drawing on ground-source heat exchange and passive airflow instead of industrial refrigeration. It is reportedly one of the most energy-efficient winery facilities in Spain. The same logic that shaped the vineyard deal shaped the building: a commitment to the place rather than a fast commercial play.

Place

Ribera del Duero runs east to west across the high Castilian plateau, and La Horra sits in its northern, Burgos-province section. This is the cooler, higher-altitude end of the denomination. Altitude and latitude together push ripening later, which in Tinta del País means the grape holds more acidity than it would on the warmer, lower reaches of the DO. The estate spans both La Horra and Roa, two villages whose plots share the plateau character but sit far enough apart that vine selection and parcel sorting matter. The estate's stated aim is to make wines that are a faithful reflection of this Burgos landscape, adding freshness to the characteristic weight that old Tinta del País carries.

Soil And Site

The 40 hectares include parcels of varying vine age across La Horra and Roa. The oldest parcels, those that supply Corimbo I, exceed 70 years. Organic viticulture governs all the land, with no synthetic inputs and a specific emphasis on leaving the soil and the vine's natural vigour in balance. The difference in vine age between the two range tiers is not a marketing distinction; old-vine Tinta del País in this part of the Ribera delivers a different fruit character, a denser mid-palate, and a tannin profile that requires less intervention in the cellar to arrive at something fine.

Story

Bodegas Roda had spent years looking for the right Ribera del Duero site. When Rotllant Solá and Carmen Daurella turned their eye east toward Ribera, they were not looking to replant from scratch. They were looking for a vine-growing family with established parcels and roots in the land. The Balbás brothers fit that exactly. Their family had worked the La Horra parcels for generations, long before the denomination existed as a legal denomination.

The agreement that came out of that meeting gave the Roda team access to 40 hectares without starting over. It also gave the Balbás family a winemaking partner with a clear philosophy. That philosophy, written into the winery's founding principles, rests on three pillars: avoid excess oak, avoid over-ripening, and extract carefully so that tannins stay fine. A winemaking team more interested in points than in place might have pushed ripeness and oak contact further. Roda chose the opposite direction, and the Carme Pinós winery that eventually rose, and mostly disappeared, into the La Horra landscape expressed the same commitment in physical form.

Vineyards And Cellar

All 40 hectares are farmed organically. The estate separates parcels by vine age into two distinct cuvées each year. Young and mid-age vines, roughly 25 to 30 years old, go into Corimbo. Old vines, those exceeding 70 years, go into Corimbo I. No blending across the two tiers.

In the cellar, the winemaking philosophy avoids force at every step. Corimbo I ferments spontaneously in French oak vats, then completes its malolactic fermentation in French oak barrels. It ages for 14 months in barrique, a mix of 80 percent French oak and 20 percent American oak. The oak is present long enough to integrate, but the stated intent is to keep wood in a supporting role: the fruit, the site, and the age of the vines do the talking.

Wines

Corimbo is the entry wine, drawn from vines of around 25 to 30 years old. Tinta del País at this vine age produces a wine with brighter red fruit, a lighter body. The oak programme is comparable to Corimbo I in approach, but younger roots draw less from the soil.

Corimbo I is the reserve tier, sourced exclusively from parcels exceeding 70 years old. It is 100 percent Tinta del País. Spontaneous fermentation, malolactic in French oak barrels, 14 months of barrel ageing in a French-dominant mix. Old Tinta del País in northern Ribera tends toward black cherry and dark plum rather than the fresh red fruit of younger vines, with a denser mid-palate and more compact tannin. The mineral note associated with the Burgos plateau parcels shows in the reserve tier more clearly than in the entry wine. Both bottles hold the same DO and the same grape; the vine age separates the range.

In The Glass

Corimbo opens with red cherry and fresh plum, a light-to-medium body, and an easy tannin grip. The acidity keeps it lively without making it lean. It finishes with the slightly warm, earthy note that Tinta del País carries in this part of Spain, clean and not prolonged.

Corimbo I moves into different register. Dark cherry, blackcurrant and a faint mineral trace rise from the glass first. In the mouth, the old-vine density shows immediately: the mid-palate is broader and more concentrated than the entry wine, the tannins finer but more persistent, the oak absorbed into the fruit rather than sitting on top of it. The 14 months in barrique add a light, barely perceptible vanilla frame without obscuring the fruit. The finish is long, with the kind of grip that asks for a little time in the glass or a few more years in the bottle.

A Bottle To Understand It

Corimbo I is the bottle that shows what Bodegas La Horra is for. It is old-vine Tinta del País from the Burgos section of Ribera del Duero: 70-plus-year-old parcels, spontaneous fermentation, malolactic in French oak barrels, 14 months of élevage. In the glass it is concentrated and mineral, with fine tannins that hold their shape and a dark fruit core that reflects vine age and cool-plateau ripening rather than extraction or overripe picking. Start here to understand what the Roda philosophy applied to northern Ribera del Duero actually tastes like.

Anecdote

Mario Rotllant Solá had been looking at Ribera del Duero for years before anything came together. Roda's reputation in Rioja was built on old Tempranillo and careful cellar work, and Rotllant Solá wanted to find the same raw material in Ribera, not to plant it from scratch but to find a family already farming it. The Balbás brothers in La Horra were exactly that: a vine-growing family whose parcels had been in continuous production for generations, long before the Ribera del Duero denomination was formally drawn. When the two sides reached an agreement, Roda's team got access to 40 hectares of established old-vine land without a single replanting. The Balbás brothers got a winemaking partner whose first principle was that the vine, not the cellar, should do the heavy lifting. The winery that Carme Pinós eventually built into the hillside above the village was the same logic poured into concrete: something serious, mostly invisible, drawing its character from the ground beneath it.

Final Word

Bodegas La Horra is in the northern, Burgos end of Ribera del Duero, where the estate's wines emphasize freshness alongside regional strength. The vine-age range gives a buyer two clear entry points into that argument. Corimbo is the daily bottle. Corimbo I, old vines and 14 months of careful oak contact, is where the full Burgos plateau character lands.

Sources

• https://www.the-buyer.net/people/producer/bodegas-roda-la-horra
• https://bodegaslahorra.es/en/winery/about-corimbo
• https://bodegaslahorra.es/en/wines/corimbo-i