From the atlas
Bodegas Valdemar
At A Glance
Location: Oyón-Oion, Álava, Rioja Alavesa, Spain Grapes: Tempranillo, Graciano, Maturana tinta Range: Crianza through Gran Reserva; Viñedo Singular tier; barrel-fermented white Scale: 300 hectares of estate vineyards, 180,000 cases annually Entry bottle: Conde Valdemar Gran Reserva
The Producer
Valdemar farms 300 hectares of vineyards in Rioja Alavesa and produces around 180,000 cases a year, making it one of the larger estate-based operations in the sub-region. That scale comes with a family history long enough to span five generations. The current fifth generation, siblings Ana and Jesús Martínez Bujanda, runs both the Rioja operation and a second winery opened in 2019 in Walla Walla, Washington.
The range centres on classical Rioja reds: Tempranillo-led wines aged through the DOCa's classification tiers, including Conde Valdemar Gran Reserva. Alongside the reds, Valdemar holds a specific place in Rioja's history for a white wine it made in 1988, the first barrel-fermented white produced in the appellation.
Place
Rioja Alavesa sits in the province of Álava, on the northern bank of the Ebro river. The sub-region has a more Atlantic character than Rioja Alta to the south or the warmer Rioja Oriental to the east: cooler temperatures slow ripening, and Tempranillo grown here tends to carry firmer acidity and a tighter tannic frame than the same grape grown further south.
Oyón-Oion is a small town near the western edge of Rioja Alavesa, close to the regional boundary. Vineyards around the town sit on gently sloping terrain with limestone in the subsoil. That limestone base holds water through dry summers and drains freely after autumn rain, which keeps vine roots working deep rather than wide. The DOCa label on a Valdemar bottle reads Rioja, followed by the classification tier; the sub-regional designation Rioja Alavesa is optional on label but central to the wine's character.
Soil And Site
Valdemar's 300 hectares spread across Rioja Alavesa without publicly confirmed parcel-level detail. Rioja Alavesa vineyards in this zone generally sit on a mix of limestone and clay, with some alluvial deposits closer to the Ebro. Limestone soils contribute to the freshness and acid line characteristic of the sub-region's reds. Soil composition at the vineyard level has not been confirmed from available sources and is not claimed here.
Story
In the 1980s, the fourth generation registered Bodegas Valdemar as a commercial entity and began bottling under the family name.
The shift from family tradition to commercial label was a turning point in the estate's trajectory, and it set the conditions for what came next. In 1988, Valdemar released a barrel-fermented white wine, the first of its kind in the Rioja DOCa. Rioja had spent decades defined by its reds and by long oak ageing in American barrels; white wine was a secondary product made to be drunk young and without oak. Barrel fermentation on white wine was a technique arriving from Burgundy and California but not yet practised in the appellation. Valdemar adopted it first.
Thirty years later, Ana and Jesús Martínez Bujanda carried the family outward. In 2019 they opened Valdemar Estates in Walla Walla, Washington, becoming the first internationally owned winery in Washington state. The Rioja operation remained the production centre, but the family now farms grapes on two continents.
Vineyards And Cellar
Valdemar farms all 300 hectares of its Rioja Alavesa vineyards as estate holdings and draws its 180,000-case annual production entirely from those plots. Keeping production within owned vineyards at that scale requires consistent management across a large area of the sub-region.
The winery participates in the Rioja DOCa's Viñedo Singular program, a quality tier that requires individual vineyards to meet stricter criteria around vine age, yield, and terroir specificity. Wines under this classification carry the name of the specific vineyard on the label rather than the broad appellation, connecting fruit from a defined plot to a bottle.
For the Gran Reserva range, the classification requires a minimum of 60 months of total ageing, including at least 24 months in oak barrels. This extended cellar time shifts the wine's character from primary fruit toward secondary complexity: coffee, cocoa, truffle, and dried black fruit sit alongside the base Tempranillo character by the time the wine is released.
Wines
The Valdemar range runs from entry Crianza wines through Reserva to the Gran Reserva tier, with Viñedo Singular bottlings sitting outside the standard hierarchy and linked to specific named vineyards. All the reds are built on Tempranillo, the grape that dominates Rioja Alavesa.
The Conde Valdemar Gran Reserva blends Tempranillo at 85% with Graciano at 10% and Maturana tinta at 5%. Graciano is a high-acid, late-ripening variety that adds aromatic lift and a firm backbone to Tempranillo-led blends; without it, Gran Reserva reds can flatten over their long ageing. Maturana tinta is a historically rare indigenous Rioja grape, contributing deeper colour and tannic weight in small proportions. The blend is aged to Gran Reserva classification requirements before release, arriving in the glass with garnet depth, black plum, and layers of secondary oak character.
The 1988 barrel-fermented white sits outside this red range as a historical marker. Current white wine production specifics are not confirmed in available sources.
Viñedo Singular wines represent the upper tier: single-vineyard, higher-standard fruit, with the parcel name on the label rather than just the classification level.
In The Glass
The Conde Valdemar Gran Reserva pours a deep, intense red ruby, clean and bright at the rim. On the nose, the primary Tempranillo fruit, black plum and dried cherry, is pushed back by the ageing complexity: coffee, cocoa, black liquorice, and truffle sit in the foreground. The 10% Graciano keeps a thread of freshness running under the secondary notes, preventing the oak character from becoming heavy.
In the mouth the wine is full-bodied and round. The tannins are present but smooth after extended bottle time, and the finish is long and unhurried. Maturana tinta adds density to the mid-palate without sharpening the edges. The overall impression is of a wine that has absorbed its oak time rather than been marked by it: the fruit and the cellar work have arrived at the same place.
Across the broader Valdemar range, the Atlantic influence of Rioja Alavesa keeps the reds cooler and more acid-driven than comparable wines from Rioja Oriental, with black fruit rather than jammy red fruit and a tighter frame in younger bottles.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Conde Valdemar Gran Reserva. It is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano, and Maturana tinta, aged through the full Gran Reserva classification before release. In the glass it is dense and developed: black plum, coffee, truffle, and a long smooth finish. The Graciano keeps the acidity alive so the weight does not close the wine down. This is the bottle that shows what Valdemar does with its estate fruit across a long cellar programme: classical Rioja at a production scale that still maintains definition.
Anecdote
In 1988, Valdemar put white wine into oak barrels to ferment. Nobody in Rioja had done it before. The appellation had built its reputation on red wine, on American oak, on years in barrel and bottle before release. White wine was made from Viura, bottled young, and drunk without oak. The idea of taking a white wine and fermenting it inside a barrel, the Burgundian and Californian way, had reached Spain but not yet reached Rioja. Valdemar's winemakers ran the experiment anyway, in a single vintage, and what came out was the first barrel-fermented white wine the DOCa had ever produced. The technique is now widespread in Rioja. The 1988 vintage was where it started.
Final Word
Valdemar is a family estate with 300 hectares in Rioja Alavesa and one specific innovation in 1988 that changed what white Rioja could be. The Gran Reserva is the clearest statement of what the estate does with its fruit and its cellars. It is a wine from a producer that has been moving steadily forward inside a conservative appellation for over a century.
Sources
- https://riojawine.com/en-us/bodegas-rioja/bodegas-valdemar/
- https://spanishwinelover.com/winerie/valdemar
- https://valdemarestates.com/our-family
- https://www.saq.com/en/325084
- https://riojawine.com/en-us/vinos-rioja/conde-valdemar-gran-reserva/