From the atlas
Bodegas Tierra
At A Glance
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| Location | Labastida, Rioja Alavesa, Spain |
| Grapes | Tempranillo, Garnacha Blanca, Malvasía, Viura |
| Range | Carbonic maceration red, single-varietal Tempranillo, Crianza, Malvasía-Viura white, Cifras Garnacha Blanca |
| Vineyards | 24 hectares owned, 20 rented |
| Production | c. 200,000 bottles per year |
| Farming | Clean farming, minimum intervention, biodynamics on select plots |
The Producer
The building Carlos Fernández and his brothers chose in Labastida's old Jewish quarter was not chosen for its facade. Underneath it, four caves cut from the rock in the 1400s were already holding wine when the family arrived. Those caves now hold 500 oak casks and require no temperature control, no humidity management, no mechanical intervention of any kind. The conditions that medieval Labastida required for wine storage are the same conditions the Fernández family relies on today.
Bodegas Tierra sits in Labastida, a village in Rioja Alavesa, the sub-zone of Rioja governed by the Basque Country province of Álava. The winery produces around 200,000 bottles a year across a range that runs from a carbonic maceration entry red through to old-vine Garnacha Blanca whites. The name means land. Every decision in vineyard and cellar traces back to that word.
Place
Labastida is in Rioja Alavesa, north of the Ebro River, where Atlantic weather reaches further inland than it does in Rioja Alta or Rioja Oriental. The elevation is higher and the growing season is cooler. Those conditions push harvest later, keep acidity brighter, and produce wines that tend to be lighter in body and more aromatic than those from the warmer, drier sub-zones to the south and east.
For Tempranillo, Rioja Alavesa's cooler profile means less extraction pressure in the cellar. The grape arrives with freshness already intact, so winemakers choosing carbonic maceration are working with the sub-zone's natural direction rather than against it. For white wines, particularly Garnacha Blanca, the Atlantic influence slows ripening and preserves the grape's natural acidity, which is the difference between a white that reads as heavy and one that finishes cleanly.
Soil And Site
The Fernández family farms 24 hectares of owned vineyard and rents a further 20. Among the owned plots, Cuba Negra carries the most specific weight: planted in 1910, it has been in continuous production for more than 115 years. Old vines send roots deeper to find water and nutrients, and this produces lower yields than younger plantings would produce. Fewer bunches per vine means more concentrated fruit from each one.
The Cifras Garnacha Blanca draws from two distinct Labastida parcels. One was planted around 1944 and is now approximately 80 years old. The other was planted around 2004 and is around 20 years old. The age gap between the two is a deliberate source of textural range: older vines give concentration and depth, younger vines give lift and freshness.
Story
The family's connection to Rioja Alavesa wine runs back three generations. Carlos Fernández's grandfather was involved in the local cooperative system, the dominant cooperative system for grape growing and wine production in the region through most of the twentieth century. His father broke from that model to produce wine independently. Carlos and his brothers took that independent direction further and founded Bodegas Tierra as an estate winery with its own vineyards, its own cellar, and its own range.
Each generation made a different choice about how to work with the land. The grandfather sold grapes collectively. The father sold wine independently. The sons built a winery in the historic Jewish quarter of Labastida, moved into the medieval caves beneath it, and named the operation for the one thing that connected every version of the family's work: the ground.
The choice to farm biodynamically on select plots came later, once the family had established the core range and could commit to slower, more labour-intensive work in the vineyard. Minimum intervention in the cellar followed the same logic. The caves make that commitment easier: when the ageing environment is stable by geology, there is less need to manage it by machine.
Vineyards And Cellar
Fernández Gómez, the entry red, is made by carbonic maceration, the traditional technique in Rioja Alavesa. Whole uncrushed bunches ferment inside the berry before any pressing takes place. The process is low in tannin extraction and high in fresh red-fruit character. Banana, kirsch, violet: the aromatics are forward and the body is light. It is a wine for early drinking.
El Primavera is single-varietal Tempranillo aged in barrel for four months. That short oak contact lifts the wine above the freshness of carbonic maceration without building the firmer tannin frame of a full Crianza.
For the Tierra Crianza, the Tempranillo blend spends at least one year in oak and six months in bottle, as Rioja's classification rules require. The cave environment keeps the oak ageing at a naturally constant temperature, which slows the exchange between wine and wood and tends to produce more integrated oak character than cellar conditions with seasonal temperature swings.
The 500 casks in the four caves below the winery age every barrel of red and white the family produces. No fans, no cooling units, no supplementary humidity. The rock keeps the conditions even.
Wines
The Fernández Gómez is carbonic maceration Tempranillo: low tannin, bright cherry and strawberry fruit, short finish, best within a year or two of harvest. It is the most approachable bottle in the range and the most traditional expression of Rioja Alavesa's entry-level style.
El Primavera steps up in weight. Four months of barrel ageing gives the single-varietal Tempranillo a touch of vanilla and a rounder mid-palate without the grip that longer oak time would add. It sits between fresh and barrel-aged.
Tierra Crianza is the core red. A Tempranillo blend aged to Crianza standard, it carries more tannin, more secondary oak character, and more capacity to age than either bottle below it. Dark cherry, dried herbs, leather and moderate oak spice are the typical register for Rioja Alavesa Crianza from this kind of farming.
Tierra Blanco blends Malvasía and Viura, the two traditional white grapes of Rioja Alavesa. Malvasía gives aromatic richness and body; Viura gives acidity and freshness. The blend reads broader than the Cifras white.
Cifras Garnacha Blanca is the range's most specific wine. Garnacha Blanca in Rioja is unusual, the sub-zone is dominated by Tempranillo in red and Viura in white. The Cifras bottling draws from two Labastida parcels: one 80 years old, one 20. Older vines give weight and texture; younger vines add freshness. The wine is richer and more layered than the Tierra Blanco and more narrowly defined by place.
In The Glass
The carbonic maceration red opens with lifted red fruit, soft berry, and a faint violet note. Low tannin means the wine is immediately accessible; the finish is short and clean. There is no oak character.
El Primavera shows more mid-palate density than the carbonic red, with a brief vanilla note from the barrel ageing and firmer tannins across the finish. Still built for early drinking but with more grip.
The Crianza is darker in fruit, carrying dried cherry, light leather, and an oak spice note that integrates after a few years in bottle. The tannin is present without being aggressive, and the cave-aged oak tends to stay in the background rather than dominating the fruit.
The Cifras Garnacha Blanca is where the range becomes most interesting in the glass. The nose is floral and slightly waxy, with stone fruit and a light mineral edge. In the mouth the wine has real weight from the old-vine parcels, balanced by bright acidity from the younger vines and the Atlantic-influenced site. The finish is long and clean, with a texture that distinguishes it from the lighter Viura-led white.
A Bottle To Understand It
Cifras Garnacha Blanca is the right first bottle. It is unusual for Rioja, where white wine almost always means Viura or a Viura-Malvasía blend. Garnacha Blanca here comes from two Labastida parcels: one planted in 1944, one planted in 2004. The older vines produce concentrated, waxy fruit with real body; the younger parcel keeps the wine from feeling heavy. This white wine has weight, length, and an acid line that holds it upright. It is not a simple introduction to Rioja whites. It is an argument that Rioja Alavesa can produce white wines worth seeking.
Anecdote
When the Fernández brothers took the building in Labastida's old Jewish quarter, the caves were already there. Four of them, joined end to end, cut from the limestone rock sometime in the 1400s. The family did not commission them, did not design them, did not inherit them through a deed. They simply arrived, found 500 oak casks already settled into the underground, and noted that the temperature and humidity had been staying constant for centuries without any help. There was no thermostat to set, no cooling system to run, no humidity unit to maintain. The caves held a steady environment because limestone and depth do that without being asked. The brothers moved their wine in and left the conditions exactly as they found them. The caves have been ageing Tierra wine ever since, at the same temperature the medieval rock determined five hundred years before anyone in the family was born.
Final Word
Bodegas Tierra is a Labastida estate with a working winery in a 15th-century cave system, old-vine plots including a parcel planted in 1910, and a range that moves from traditional carbonic maceration Tempranillo to a Garnacha Blanca white that is genuinely unusual for Rioja. The family's farming philosophy is quiet and consistent: minimum intervention, biodynamics where it makes sense, and a cellar that has been doing its job by itself for six centuries.
Sources
- https://tierrayvino.com/?lang=en
- https://riojawine.com/en-us/bodegas-rioja/bodegas-tierra/
- https://spanishwinelover.com/winerie/tierra
- https://tierrayvino.com/producto/cifras-garnacha-blanca/