The journey to the essence of wine and to the center of the earth
Don't be scared off by the headline. royal vineyard it is not the last station of a suburban line. Nor is it a delusions of grandeur from a megalomaniacal mayor. It's just a warehouse . Very big? Yes Very ambitious? Also. After all, it is the head of the mythical CVNE signature in Rioja Alavesa . And just as it happens with his mother house in Haro, this one is also made to be admired and not just tasted, with many elements of surprise that, at the very least, appreciate an explanation. So without further ado let's start with a journey to the heart of wine and also to the center of the earth.
Viña Real boasts of having been the first firm to consider the concept 'signature winery' in Spain. They argue this by asserting that their project was prior to that of Ysios but that it took longer to build. It's okay, really, they don't need this landmark to sell themselves. Although it is true that before this fame the visitor expects a labyrinth of impossible shapes surrounded by vineyards. Well no. What is found is a construction that simulates to be a bathtub of a burgundy-dark-almost-purple color thanks to the red cedar wood that covers it.
Exterior of the Viña Real winery
The interior of this large burgundy tub
It can be disappointing, especially considering its illustrious neighbors. But of course, we must not forget that it is a work of Philippe Maziers, an "enoarchitect" (I just made up the word) from Bordeaux whose obsession is design efficient warehouses without stealing any importance from the wine. Màziers' love affair with wine runs so deep that he himself is focused on running his own winery in his native France. The building stands out for its location, on a hill straddling Laguardia and Logroño, from where practically the entire D.O. The Rioja. It's almost like a cyborg that emerges from the bowels of the mountain putting a bit of chaos in such a harmonious landscape.
The 'author' concept begins to appear as soon as you cross its automatic doors. It is sensed that there is something special in this unique space, something different, a distinctive touch. And there is, starting the visit by the Hit of the tour, the impressive fermentation room. It is a circular cabin, on whose walls rest the enormous steel tanks. And in the center, the feet of the exterior tub that support the large yellow crane that dances as it pleases, pouring from the tanks. At Viña Real they believe that the success of a wine also lies in the affection with which the grape is treated . For this reason, this initial fermentation process is carried out using gravity, allowing the clusters to be transported in **O.V.I.s (Identified Flying Object, registered trademark) **, placed by the enormous yellow arm so that they fall naturally into their respective deposit and thus begin the process of crushing by gravity, nothing to push externally.
It's fun to listen to how they explain it, but it's even more fun to walk freely through a very strange place, with very artificial colors and shapes that are still useful. Chapeau Màziers, you have achieved mix the 'theme park' concept with that of a winery without dirtying either of them.
The circular fermentation room
We continue towards the great attraction: the two breeding tunnels . Its history could be told as if it were a legend: “the oldest of the place say that to dig these galleries, they had to use the force of a tunnel boring machine from the Bilbao metro”. But the fact is that it was so by pure pragmatism. They had a mountain so... Why not take advantage of the thermal advantages of its interior and make a cellar like those of yesteryear, underground? But of course, the production volume of these wineries today is much higher than that of traditional ones, so the pick and shovel of all life seemed very useless. And so, with the tunnel boring machine in tow, they returned from Bilbao to gain that land from the heart of the mountain and forget about artificial cooling for life. Visiting him has that high (and that joke) of not knowing where the subway convoy is going to come from and to check the huge number of barrels and bottles for aging that are kept in the 200 meter depth of the tunnels. Absolutely pharaonic.
On the level below the fermentation room there is another barrel room, much humbler in proportion, where it is checked how the wine evolves and malolactic fermentation takes place. Here there is indeed a stronghold for aesthetics, with the barrels arranged concentrically to the central pillars and with columns that deceive the eye. Until there are no bets involved, it is not discovered that what is actually tilted is not the floor, but the columns, creating a hypnotic and disconcerting optical effect.
And there, in the center of everything, looking up through the glass, you can see the roof of the crane, the top of the tub. These columns support this huge Indian tipi Spanish version and wink at Eiffel. at the headquarters of CVNE in Haro They have one of the few buildings of the mythical Gustave in Spain. A ship that was futuristic in its day because it did not require central pillars to support the roof since it rests on triangular metal trusses. As recognition and pride, Màziers allowed himself the luxury of making his little Eiffel Tower inside the winery , a wink nothing more, since they are still 8 large pillars that start separately to come together at a definitive vertex, much closer to the sky.
The best wine is bred in the depths of the earth