Bodegas Arizcuren

At A Glance

Region: DOCa Rioja
Sub-zone: Rioja Oriental
Village: Quel
Main grapes: Mazuelo, Garnacha, Viura
Signature wine: Solo Mazuelo
Defining feature: Sixth-generation family estate; parcel-separated fermentation; unlined amphora ageing

The Producer

Bodegas Arizcuren is a small DOCa Rioja producer based in Logroño, drawing fruit from 16 hectares of family vines outside Quel in Rioja Oriental. Javier Arizcuren is an architect who also pursued studies in enology and viticulture, and the estate he built around these parcels reflects both disciplines: methodical separation of each plot, minimal intervention in the cellar, and a focus on varieties that dominated this corner of Rioja long before Tempranillo became the region's calling card.

The vines are old. Individual blocks range from 40 to over 100 years in age. Alongside Mazuelo, Garnacha, and Viura, Javier farms heritage varieties including Calagraño, Tinta Velasco, and Miguel de Arco, recovered from ancestral plantings on the family estate. The wines sell in over 20 countries and appear in Michelin-starred restaurants.

Place

Quel sits in Rioja Oriental, the easternmost and warmest of the three Rioja sub-zones, where the Sierra de Yerga provides altitude and cooler air than the low-lying plains to the north. Arizcuren's parcels are on that sierra, 16 hectares spread across old family holdings that the family has farmed for six generations.

Javier makes the wines 40 kilometres away in Logroño, where his urban cellar opened in 2016 beside his architecture studio. Rioja Oriental has historically supplied bulk wine to blenders elsewhere in the appellation; the DOCa Rioja qualified status Arizcuren obtained in 2012 for his small production marked a shift toward estate bottling and parcel-level winemaking.

Story

Javier Arizcuren came to winemaking with the family vines already in place. His ancestors had farmed grapes in Quel for six generations, but the fruit had gone elsewhere, absorbed into larger regional production rather than bottled under a family name. In 2009 Javier began fermenting small amounts in the basement of the family home while continuing his architecture practice. Two years later, in 2011, he took over management of the family vineyards.

He selected 16 hectares of the oldest blocks, ranging from 40 to over 100 years in age, and began farming them organically, adding biodynamic practices alongside. In 2012 the DOCa Rioja granted his small production qualified status, the regulatory recognition that the wines met the appellation's standards for estate bottling. Four years after that, Javier opened a dedicated cellar in Logroño, giving the project a permanent winemaking home.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 16 hectares in Rioja Oriental are planted to Mazuelo, Garnacha, and Viura as the primary varieties, with old blocks of Calagraño, Tinta Velasco, and Miguel de Arco also under vine. These heritage varieties were present in the ancestral plantings and would otherwise have disappeared from Rioja's active register. Javier farms with certified organic methods and biodynamic practices, avoiding synthetic treatments.

Grapes are hand-harvested and fermented separately by parcel using ambient yeasts. Keeping each plot apart at harvest and through fermentation allows Javier to follow the character of each block rather than blending it away at intake. For certain wines, ageing takes place in unlined clay amphora, which allow more oxygen exchange than oak without imparting wood flavour. Annual production is approximately 12,500 bottles.

Wines

The range is built around single-variety, single-method bottlings. Solo Mazuelo is 100% Mazuelo from old vines, with cold maceration of two to four days before fermentation, followed by eight months in amphora. Solo Garnacha takes the same approach with Garnacha, using the variety's red-fruit character and round tannins as the centre of the wine.

Monte Gatún broadens the picture: 70% Tempranillo, 20% Mazuelo, and 10% Garnacha in a blend that shows what each variety contributes when they share a vat. The Solo bottlings are the narrowest and most parcel-focused wines in the range; Monte Gatún is the wider, more approachable entry point.

In The Glass

Solo Garnacha opens with fresh strawberries and red fruit, a note of kirsch in the background, and round tannins through to a long, fine finish. The fruit is vivid and precise, the tannin smooth rather than angular.

Solo Mazuelo is darker and firmer. The cold maceration keeps the fruit clear while the amphora ageing builds grip and firm acidity without the vanilla or spice that oak would add. Old-vine Mazuelo on the Sierra de Yerga is deeply coloured, tannic, and built to age. Monte Gatún sits between the two Solo wines in weight and complexity: the Tempranillo adds body and dark fruit, the Mazuelo and Garnacha contributing savory depth.

A Bottle To Understand It

Solo Mazuelo is 100% Mazuelo from old family vines on the Sierra de Yerga, cold-macerated and fermented in parcel, aged eight months in unlined amphora. The grape is grippy and deeply coloured, the amphora adds oxygen exchange without oak character, and the wine finishes with firm acidity and tannic grip.

Anecdote

In 2009, Javier Arizcuren began fermenting grapes in the basement of the family home in Quel while continuing to take architecture commissions. He had inherited access to old family vineyard blocks but no winery, so the basement was the first cellar. When he took over management of the family vineyards in 2011, the production outgrew the home setup. In 2016 he opened a small winery in the centre of Logroño, immediately beside his architecture studio, and moved the winemaking there. The two practices now share a wall and a single address on the same street.

Final Word

Arizcuren pulls Mazuelo, Garnacha, and forgotten heritage varieties from old Quel family vines that might otherwise feed anonymous regional blends. The parcel-by-parcel fermentation and amphora ageing give each variety room to show what the Sierra de Yerga actually produces.

At A Glance

The Producer

Place

Story

Vineyards And Cellar

Wines

In The Glass

A Bottle To Understand It

Anecdote

Final Word

Sources

Where to go next