Spain · Ribera del Duero

Viñedos y Bodegas Aster S.L.

La Rioja Alta S.A.'s single-parcel Ribera del Duero estate, farming Tinta del País across two Burgos parcels since 1993 and releasing its first wines in 2001 after more than a decade of quiet reconnaissance.

The producer

Viñedos y Bodegas Aster is the Ribera del Duero estate of La Rioja Alta S.A., the century-old Rioja house based in Haro. The estate farms Tinta del País, the local name for Tempranillo, across vineyards in the Burgos municipalities of La Horra and Anguix, within the DO Ribera del Duero. The winery was built in the French château style and completed. The first Aster wines were released in 2001. Behind that date is a longer story: La Rioja Alta began studying Ribera del Duero soils in the late 1980s, bought the El Otero vineyard in Anguix in 1993, and spent years vinifying small volumes in rented facilities while the permanent building took shape. From first reconnaissance to first labelled bottle took the better part of twelve years.

The portfolio has two wines, each from a distinct parcel. Finca El Otero comes from the original El Otero parcel on clay soils in Anguix: cold-macerated for a week before fermentation begins, aged for complexity, and built to develop in bottle. El Espino, launched in 2023, comes from a 7.9-hectare plot in Anguix on loamy-sandy soil at 800 metres elevation. It is lighter-framed with softer tannins, designed for earlier drinking alongside a wider range of food. The winery also houses four guest suites and a private dining room overlooking the barrel cellar, reserved for single groups of up to fourteen.

Known for

Single-parcel DO Ribera del Duero Tinta del País from clay and loamy-sandy Burgos vineyards, with Finca El Otero cold-macerated.

Notable facts

The story

Twelve Years Before the First Bottle

Sometime in the late 1980s, the directors of La Rioja Alta S.A. turned their attention south and east, toward the plateau of Burgos. The Ribera del Duero had received its DO in 1982, and Vega Sicilia was still the only name most buyers outside Spain could place in it. La Rioja Alta sent people to walk the land rather than to write a cheque: years of soil mapping, site selection, and small-batch experimentation before any vineyard changed hands. The first purchase came in 1993, the El Otero parcel in Anguix. The winery followed, and the first Aster bottles went to market in 2001. From first reconnaissance to first cork in a bottle marked with a new label, the house had taken the better part of twelve years. The clay soils of El Otero had not gone anywhere, and neither had the house's original conviction about what they could produce.

From the atlas

Viñedos y Bodegas Aster

At A Glance

The Producer

Viñedos y Bodegas Aster is La Rioja Alta S.A.'s estate in Ribera del Duero, the appellation along the Duero River in Castilla y León where Tinta del País, the local name for Tempranillo, grows at elevations above 700 metres on clay and loamy-sandy soils. La Rioja Alta S.A. is a century-old house based in Haro in the Rioja Alta. Moving into Ribera del Duero was not a quick lateral expansion: the house spent the better part of a decade studying the soils and selecting land before making any commitment. The first Aster wines came in 2001, from parcels in the Burgos municipalities of La Horra and Anguix.

The winery itself was built in the French château style, a departure from the industrial functionality of many Ribera estates of that era. It houses four guest suites, a private dining room with a direct view into the barrel cellar, and facilities for guided tours and vineyard walks. The estate is simultaneously a focused single-parcel wine project and a destination built for close engagement with what grows and ferments there.

Place

Ribera del Duero is a DO running east to west along the Duero River, mostly through the province of Burgos at elevations between 750 and 900 metres. The altitude moderates summer heat and sharpens the diurnal temperature swings that keep Tinta del País from becoming jammy. Cold nights during the growing season extend phenolic development and allow acidity to accumulate alongside ripeness, producing Ribera wines with their characteristic combination of dark fruit and firm grip.

Aster's vineyards divide between La Horra and Anguix, two Burgos municipalities a short distance from each other within the DO. La Horra lies on clay soils; Anguix adds loamy-sandy ground at roughly 800 metres. Both support Tinta del País, but the soil differences translate into two distinct range positions. Clay gives weight, colour depth, and tannin to Finca El Otero; the sandier loam of El Espino's Anguix plot produces a lighter frame and softer tannins that allow the wine to be opened earlier.

Soil And Site

Finca El Otero sits on clay in Anguix, a soil type that retains water during dry spells and slows ripening enough to build layered aromas rather than a single concentrated fruit note. The vineyards are trained on double cordon trellises, a system that distributes the canopy evenly, limits yield per shoot, and keeps the fruit zone raised above the ground to avoid frost pooling in the cool Burgos winters.

El Espino occupies a 7.9-hectare plot in Anguix on loamy-sandy soil at approximately 800 metres elevation. Sandy soils drain quickly, forcing vines to root deeper and produce smaller, more concentrated berries. The combination of altitude and sandy drainage produces Tinta del País with softer tannins and a more immediate fruit lift than the clay-grown fruit of El Otero.

Story

La Rioja Alta S.A. made its first visit to the Ribera del Duero plateau in the late 1980s, when the appellation had only recently received its DO status and the international reputation of Vega Sicilia was still the dominant reference point for outsiders. The house sent people to walk the soils and map the best positions for growing Tinta del País before buying a single vine. In 1993, after several years of that fieldwork, the first parcel changed hands: the El Otero vineyard in Anguix.

The years after 1993 were vinification years, experimentation on small volumes in rented facilities while the permanent winery took shape. The château-style building in Anguix opened. In 2001, La Rioja Alta S.A. released the first wines under the Aster name. The interval between first interest and first bottle was more than a decade, which is unusual for a house with the capital and market position to move faster.

The portfolio has evolved since then. Finca El Otero remained in the range, defining what the estate does best: cold-macerated Tinta del País from old clay-soil vines with the depth and tannin to develop in bottle. In 2023, El Espino entered the range as a counterpoint: lighter, earlier-drinking, grown on sandier ground at 800 metres and positioned alongside food outside the traditional Ribera pairing of roast lamb.

Vineyards And Cellar

All Aster wines are 100% Tinta del País. Tinta del País is Tempranillo as it grows on the Ribera plateau: the altitude and Burgos continental climate produce a grape that is darker and firmer than its Rioja counterpart, with higher natural acidity and tannins that require time to soften. The double cordon training system used across both vineyards controls canopy and limits the vine's tendency to overcrop, which keeps concentration in the fruit.

Finca El Otero goes through one week of natural pre-fermentation cold maceration before fermentation begins. Cold maceration extracts colour compounds and aromatic precursors from the grape skins without extracting coarse tannins, because the low temperature inhibits the yeast and enzymatic activity needed for fermentation. This produces a wine that opens with layered complexity while retaining the firm backbone typical of Ribera Tinta del País.

Wines

The Aster range has two wines, each from a distinct parcel and built for a different moment.

Finca El Otero is sourced from the El Otero parcel in Anguix on clay soils. It is 100% Tinta del País aged to develop the spice and secondary character that cold-macerated Ribera fruit can carry. The nose is dense: ripe blackcurrants and blueberries over balsamic notes of mocha, clove, vanilla, and nutmeg, with a thread of menthol beneath. The colour is intense ruby with a deep garnet rim, indicating both the clay-soil extraction and the ageing potential in the wine. This is a bottle that rewards patience.

El Espino is 100% Tinta del País from the 7.9-hectare El Espino plot in Anguix at 800 metres on loamy-sandy soil. Launched in 2023, it sits at the lighter end of the Ribera spectrum: fresher fruit, a softer tannin weight, and an approachable frame that works alongside pasta, lighter proteins, rice dishes, and sushi. Where El Otero asks for time, El Espino offers immediate access to what the estate grows.

In The Glass

Finca El Otero opens with a dark aromatic register: blackcurrant and blueberry fruit, then a balsamic layer of mocha, clove, vanilla, and nutmeg, with a cool menthol note cutting through at the back. In the mouth, the clay-soil tannins are present from the start, firm and even rather than harsh, building through the mid-palate alongside concentrated dark fruit. The week of pre-fermentation cold maceration shows in the aromatic depth: this is not a simple fruit-forward wine but one where the layers take time to open. The acidity keeps the finish clean and long despite the tannin weight. Finca El Otero needs time in bottle; a few years from a serious vintage gives the tannins space to soften and the balsamic and spice notes to integrate.

El Espino reads differently from the first pour: lifted red and dark fruit, softer tannins from the sandy-loam ground, and a lighter body, and it responds to food. It lacks the brooding density of El Otero but offers immediate pleasure and a versatility across the table that Finca El Otero does not attempt.

A Bottle To Understand It

Finca El Otero is the bottle to start with. It is a single-parcel Tinta del País from the first vineyard La Rioja Alta S.A. ever acquired in Ribera del Duero, cold-macerated before fermentation to build aromatic complexity, and grown on clay with genuine tannin weight and depth of colour. In the glass it offers ripe blackcurrant and blueberry fruit above a balsamic base of mocha, clove, and nutmeg, with firm acidity holding the wine together across a long finish. Open it with roast lamb or aged cheese, or lay it down for a few years if you want the full arc. It shows what the Burgos plateau does with Tinta del País and why La Rioja Alta S.A. spent more than a decade waiting to get here.

Anecdote

Sometime in the late 1980s, the directors of La Rioja Alta S.A. turned their attention south and east, toward the plateau of Burgos. The Ribera del Duero had just received its DO in 1982, and Vega Sicilia was the only name most wine buyers outside Spain could place in it. La Rioja Alta sent people to walk the land rather than to write a check: years of soil mapping, site selection, and small-batch experimentation before any vineyard changed hands. The first purchase came in 1993, the El Otero parcel in Anguix. The winery followed, and the first Aster bottles went to market in 2001. From first reconnaissance to first cork in a bottle marked with a new label, the house had taken the better part of twelve years. The wine trade rarely rewards patience that slow, but the El Otero vineyard was still there, and the clay soils had not gone anywhere.

Final Word

Aster is La Rioja Alta S.A.'s argument for Ribera del Duero made in two parcels. Finca El Otero demonstrates what clay-soil Tinta del País can do with careful cold maceration and time; El Espino shows that the same grape on sandier ground at altitude can also be immediate and food-friendly. The estate does not try to cover the full spectrum of Ribera styles. It farms two plots and makes two wines, and both trace back to a decade of reconnaissance that finished before most people knew the appellation's name.

Sources

Open Viñedos y Bodegas Aster S.L. in the interactive map →