At A Glance
- **Country:** Spain
- **Region:** Rioja
- **Subzone:** Rioja Oriental
- **Village:** Andosilla area
- **Grapes:** Garnacha, Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Graciano
- **Listed wine:** Alma de la Marciana (80% Garnacha, 20% Tempranillo, 14.5% abv)
- **Viticulture:** Biodynamic
- **Cellar:** New French oak, malolactic fermentation
- **Key vineyard:** Mariano parcel, vines planted c.1900
The Producer
Bodegas La Marciana is built on a winemaking partnership that is genuinely unusual for Rioja Oriental. The Serrano family had farmed the Mariano vineyard for generations, growing grapes on white limestone soils in the warm, dry eastern reaches of the appellation. Then Philipp and Nadine arrived with a framework drawn from two quite different French regions: the full, sun-warmed power of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the single-vineyard discipline of Burgundy. The partnership turned those old family vines into a named estate project.
The Mariano vineyard, with vines planted around 1900 and now approximately 120 years old, produces grapes for single-vineyard expressions.
Place
Rioja Oriental is the easternmost and hottest of the three Rioja subzones, running toward Navarra along the Ebro river basin. Temperatures run higher here than in the Rioja Alta or Rioja Alavesa, and Garnacha rather than Tempranillo tends to dominate in the oldest vineyards. The grape ripens fully in this heat, reaching high alcohol and round, plush fruit with relatively low tannin.
The Mariano parcel sits on white limestone with reddish-gray clay traces. Limestone in warm climates holds water through dry summers and forces roots deep; clay adds water retention and a degree of mineral exchange that can add complexity to the mid-palate. Both soil types are common to the better old-vine parcels in eastern Rioja and help explain why Garnacha grown here can stay expressive even at 14.5% alcohol.
The wines are labelled as Rioja, the broader denomination that covers all three subzones.
Soil And Site
The Mariano vineyard is farmed biodynamically. White limestone dominates the soil profile, with reddish-gray clay present in traces. Old vines on poor limestone soils produce naturally lower yields: fewer bunches, more concentrated juice, deeper colour. Vines of 120 years have root systems that reach far below the surface, drawing on mineral reserves unavailable to younger plantings.
Biodynamic viticulture follows a farming calendar based on lunar cycles and treats the soil and vine as a single organism, avoiding synthetic inputs. At Bodegas La Marciana, the declared aim is maximum aromatic and flavour extraction from the grapes, which in practice means minimal intervention between vine and cellar.
Story
The Serrano family grew grapes on the Mariano parcel across multiple generations, as their family had done in Rioja Oriental for as long as any local memory reaches. The grapes from those vines went to market or to cooperatives rather than into a named, bottled wine. The Mariano parcel was a source, not a label.
When Philipp and Nadine joined the Serranos, the philosophy behind those old vines changed. The two had absorbed wine cultures from opposite ends of France, one shaped by the rich, sun-driven blends of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the southern Rhône, the other by the parcel-by-parcel thinking of Burgundy. They brought that combined framework east into Spain and applied it to the Garnacha that the Serranos already had in the ground. The partnership produced an estate committed to single-vineyard expression and biodynamic farming, bottling a wine that carried the Mariano parcel's name and character rather than disappearing into a regional blend.
Vineyards And Cellar
The Mariano vineyard's age matters in the cellar as much as in the field. Old Garnacha vines give lower tonnage per hectare and more concentrated juice. The natural yield constraint means each litre of Alma de la Marciana carries more flavour than a younger-vine equivalent at the same alcohol level.
In the cellar, the estate uses exclusively new French oak barrels and includes malolactic fermentation in the winemaking process. New oak adds vanilla, warm spice and a slight toasty character to the wine; the estate's description of the wood contribution as subtle and soft suggests the élevage period is calibrated so that Garnacha's ripe fruit is not buried under oak. Malolactic fermentation converts sharper malic acid into rounder lactic acid, giving the finished wine a creamy texture and softening the mid-palate. For a warm-climate Garnacha at 14.5%, these cellar choices pull toward richness and drinkability rather than austerity.
Wines
Four classic Rioja red varieties grow at Bodegas La Marciana: Garnacha, Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano. Each plays a role in the estate's range, though Alma de la Marciana has a stated composition.
Alma de la Marciana is 80% Garnacha and 20% Tempranillo. The Garnacha majority at 14.5% alcohol points to fully ripe, warm-grown fruit: round and generous at the centre, with the dark berry character that old vines in hot limestone sites can produce. The Tempranillo minority makes up the remaining 20% of the blend. New French oak contributes warmth and a soft spice note; malolactic fermentation rounds the texture. The overall direction is toward a wine that is full-bodied, creamy and fruit-forward, with enough alcohol to give weight on the palate.
Beyond Alma de la Marciana, the estate grows Mazuelo and Graciano. Mazuelo contributes acidity and colour in Rioja blends; Graciano adds aromatic lift and firm tannin. Both are present at La Marciana but the full range is not yet documented.
In The Glass
Alma de la Marciana opens with ripe dark fruit from the Garnacha: black cherry, plum and a hint of dried berry from fully ripe, old-vine material. Warm spice and vanilla from the new French oak rise alongside the fruit rather than over it. In the mouth, the wine is round and full, with the plush mid-palate weight that 14.5% alcohol and old-vine Garnacha produce together. The malolactic fermentation is legible in the texture: creamy rather than taut, with a soft acid line and a finish that carries warmth and a hint of oak spice. The Tempranillo at 20% adds a thread of darker fruit and keeps the finish from being entirely soft, giving the wine enough shape to hold its weight.
This is a warm-climate red built for richness. It does not lean toward the lighter, higher-acid style of cooler Rioja Alta Tempranillo. Old limestone-grown Garnacha from the hot east produces a different wine: broader, more generous, with fruit that fills the mouth.
A Bottle To Understand It
Alma de la Marciana 2020 is the place to start. It is 80% Garnacha from the Mariano parcel's 120-year-old vines, aged in new French oak, and the entire estate argument is in the glass: old-vine concentration, warm Rioja Oriental ripeness, creamy malolactic texture, and the stylistic ambition of a project that set out to make Garnacha as seriously as Châteauneuf-du-Pape or a Burgundian cru. At 14.5% alcohol with a full, round mid-palate, it is a wine to open with food rather than on its own. Dark meats, slow-cooked lamb, aged hard cheeses.
Anecdote
The Mariano vineyard had been in the Serrano family for as long as the family had grown grapes in Rioja Oriental, which was generations before anyone thought to bottle the fruit under a name. The vines, planted around 1900, produced grapes that went to cooperatives or the open market. They were good grapes from old limestone soil, but they had no label and no story attached to them. When Philipp and Nadine came to the Serranos with a winemaking vision drawn from Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Burgundy, they looked at those 120-year-old vines and saw something different: a single parcel, on identifiable soil, with a century of root depth, that had never been bottled as a single-vineyard wine. The partnership gave the Mariano vineyard a name, a philosophy and a wine. The vines did not change. What changed was what anyone intended to do with them.
Final Word
Bodegas La Marciana is a small estate with a clear argument. Rioja Oriental is hot, its old Garnacha is underused, and single-vineyard biodynamic farming from 120-year-old vines on limestone produces something worth bottling carefully. Alma de la Marciana is the evidence. It is full, warm and fruit-driven, shaped by old vines and new oak, and it reflects a project that brought a cross-cultural winemaking philosophy to bear on a parcel that had been waiting to be taken seriously.