The famous Bodegas of Rioja have earned this Northern Spanish region its spot amongst the world's best. Sourced from throughout the region, from a small army of growers the wines are defined by balance and... Read More

The famous Bodegas of Rioja have earned this Northern Spanish region its spot amongst the world's best. Sourced from throughout the region, from a small army of growers the wines are defined by balance and harmony. This is particularly true of their Gran Reserva, treasures of the wine world that are expertly blended and defined by their long aging before release.

Yet there is something astir in Rioja. A while back, a small group of some of the region's most talented growers began to make wines that were equally compelling. But these winemakers are using a very different approach than the bodegas. Their goal is to allow Rioja’s diverse and exceptional terroir to shine through by working with small plots of sustainably farmed vines, often very old and doing everything in the winery to preserve the site's character. For us this has been a welcome trend and no one has done more to prove just how exceptional Rioja made this way can be than the folks at Artuké.

Artuké begins thirty years ago when fourth-generation grower Roberto de Miguel stopped selling the wine he made from his Rioja Alavesa vineyards to Haro’s big bodegas and began bottling it himself. He hand-sold his wine door-to-door out of his van in the Basque Country as far as Bilbao.

It was the next generation that began to build what Artuké is now. Clearly inheriting their father’s independent spirit independent Roberto’s sons Arturo and Kike (the name Artuke is a combination of their names) rejected Rioja’s classification system based on time and type of aging. In the small winery they built under the family home in humble Baños de Rioja, far away from glitzy Haro, they focus on capturing the purest, most vivid expressions possible of the extraordinary terroirs they work.

The de Miguel brothers' plots are clustered around the towns of Baños de Ebro, Ábalos, San Vicente de Sonsierra and Samaniego, all north of the Ebro River in Rioja Alavesa. After studying soil science, the brothers divided their vineyards into 32 specific plots. Many of their sites boast ancient vines, somelong abandoned. Artuke and the small group of like minded, intrepid viñadores have restored and now lovingly tend to these treasured vines. They are the key element to this new terrior-foward approach.

The de Miguel brothers are producing hand down some of the best wine that Rioja produces today. Humble and kind, they are true artisans, tending their head-pruned vines organically, macerating for a short time in vat, and aging in large, neutral barrels. They even continue to sell much of their modestly priced production locally.