Bodega Abel Mendoza Monge & Casa Toni

Located in Rioja Alta, Bodega Abel Mendoza Monge is a relatively small bodega situated in the town of San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Despite being a small winery, Abel Mondoza Monge enjoys a large reputation on account of the high quality of the wine it produces, including, rather unusually, white Riojas. And we were lucky enough to get to visit and try.

walls of tank stained from grapes pressed underfoot

Abel Mendoza is an artisan producer who handcrafts his own wines according to his own rules. This is what El Mundo Vino, Spain's leading wine column, had to say about him:

'If we searched for the ideal embodiment of what it takes to convert the traditional grower of Rioja to a modern "vigneron" and producer of cutting edge craftsmanship, qualitative and French, it would be Abel Mendoza Monge. A small farm (16 hectares), a viticultural perfectionist that grows grapes of high quality, and a careful wine making in French oak barrels and not American. By the way, both red and white wines are of sublime quality'

We were shown round the bodega by Maite, Abel's wife and the bodega's winemaker. I had been wanting to visit the vineyard having tried their wines at a London tasting. Since 1988 the bodega has grown from 16 to 18 hectares that are divided into 37 parcels. These parcels are somewhat tricky to reach, located either along the River Ebro or villages surrounding San Vincente de la Sonsierra. We didn't walk the vineyards precisely for this reason, but Maite did walk us through the wine production, explaining to us their philosophy.

It was fascinating to see the large concrete tanks where the carbonic maceration takes place. The grapes (tempranillo and malvasia) are entirely handpicked and then deposited into the tanks where they are eventually crushed underfoot. It was a long climb up to the top where we peered in. The whole process struck me as terribly romantic. I said so. Maite then pointed out that the process is highly dangerous as the gasses released during this phase can kill.

At the bodega they use organic farming methods, and market their wines under 2 different brands: Jarrate and Abel Mendoza. Jarrarte is a young wine subject to carbonic maceration, whilst the Abel Mendoza label is kept in oak barrels for eleven months. The yield of the Abel Mendoza brand is quite low which makes these wonderful wines something of a rarity. You can purchase either the Jarrate or Abel Mendoza label in the UK from here and here.

After tasting a few glasses of the white Rioja (of which the bodega produce 4 varieties) and then a couple more of their young Jarrarte wine with Maite, I promptly offered my services to help them pick the harvest towards the end of September, early October. I am waiting to hear back from them and while I wait, practice my Spanish.

Chozo de Puerto Rubio,
an old shepherd's hut, San Vincente de la Sonsierra

Maite also highly recommended Casa Toni for dinner (it is just up the road from the bodega) but unfortunately it was closed the week we were there. We heard a lot of good things about this restaurant so I shall blog about it here when I return from harvest.

From here we moved on to wine therapy at Gehry's Hotel Marquis de Riscal in Elciego, which you can read about here. Otherwise to return to the North Spain main menu, click here.