Rioja’s Bodegas Lan and nine wines rated

The name of Bodegas Lan, so the story goes, stands for the three main provinces that make up Rioja: Logroño (now La Rioja), Alava and Navarra. The winery was founded in 1972 by a group of men from Bilbao looking to set up a txoko, a traditional Basque dining club. Lan was not alone; Beronia, also launched in the 1970s, was similarly based on a group of friends meeting in a txoko.

The Ebro river meanders through Rioja on its journey eastwards to the Mediterranean. It’s in one of the most obvious of those meanders that Lan has the 74 hectare ‘Lanciano’ vineyard. This is border country, on the very edge of Rioja Alta, just across the river from Rioja Alavesa.

There has been a crossing point here since Roman times, though the remains of the Puente de Mantible (Mantible Bridge), more likely date from the Middle Ages. Just two arches of an estimated seven remain today, but it must have been a striking construct, with 30 metre-high arches at the highest point. The stones themselves were quarried from the edge of the vineyard and give a clue to the quality of the land on this estate.

Scroll down to see Sarah Jane Evans MW’s nine Bodegas Lan wines to seek out

The vineyard lies at an altitude of 400m, sloping down to 380m. It has a protected microclimate, sheltered by the Sierra Cantabria range, as well as the influence from the river. As a result the vineyard is rarely frosted, though instead it is susceptible to mildew and odium.

The soils are Quaternary – including clay, sand and gravel – and the vineyard is divided into 22 plots. Tempranillo dominates, with some Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo. Currently, 15ha are organic, with 9ha in conversion in the area close to the bridge. The plan is that 24ha will be certified organic this year.

Lanciano and Culmen

This vineyard produces two, very different, wines. The first is ‘Viña Lanciano’, which is a fresh take on the classic Rioja style, according to Bodegas Lan. The Gran Reserva won a gold medal at Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2023. By contrast, ‘Culmen’ was launched as a ‘vino de autor’, a distinctive winemaker wine, at a time when there were US critics looking for dense, plush, concentrated styles; the opposite to the Riojan classics.

As the name suggests, Culmen is one of the top wines from Lan – and it is a definite change of gear. It comes from a subset of the Lanciano vineyard, known as the ‘Pago el Rincón’ (‘the parcel in the corner’). It consists of 15ha of 50- to 60-year-old bush vines at almost 500m at the foot of the El Rincón hill.

Both Viña Lanciano and Culmen are fermented in small, truncated cone-shaped stainless steel vats. Both wines are distinctly deep in colour, which is achieved by long macerations and regular pumping over.

The winemaking of Lanciano under technical director María Barúa is evolving to good effect. Where the 2017 Reserva saw 20 months in a mix of French and Russian oak, followed by 18 months bottle age, the 2019 saw 16 months in part new, part one-year-old French oak and nine months in concrete tank, before 12 months ageing in bottle. This is not just a matter of finessing – there’s a difference between the two. The tannins are finer in 2019, the fruit more expressive, the finish more explosive.

Winemaking style

By contrast, the winemaking for Culmen has changed little since 2001 which was the third vintage after 1994 and 1995. There is a double selection table; fermentation follows, with post-fermentation maceration for 20 days. Malolactic fermentation is in new French oak, with ageing for 26 months in the same barrels. No wonder the wines are sumptuously full and fleshy, with spice, black pepper and intense blackcurrant fruit.

The 2001 vintage has definitely developed well; by contrast the 2019 is very young and needs time to grow into itself. As befits a concentrated style, the yields from the vineyard are low: 3,500 kg/ha in 2001 and 3,100 kg/ha in 2019. In 2017, the year when the vineyard just escaped the punishing frost, the yield went down to 2,800 kg/ha.

Graciano and Garnacha

Lan also has a 100% Graciano, which has not yet been released. In this regard it is following the practice of that other winery in a meander of the Ebro: Contino, which makes a 100% Graciano called ‘Viña del Olivo’. As for Garnacha, Lan has planted 5ha, but is not yet happy enough with the results to release it.

There’s more to Lan than Viña Lanciano and Culmen. The total production is five million bottles, and the winery buys in grapes from another 400ha of vineyards. Since 2012, Lan has been owned by Sogrape, the Portuguese company founded in 1942 that produces Mateus Rosé.

Just over 80 years later, Sogrape has 19 wineries in its portfolio and its reach now extends far beyond Portugal, not only throughout Spain including properties in Rueda, Ribera del Duero and Rías Baixas, but also to Argentina, Chile and New Zealand.

See notes and scores for Sarah Jane Evans MW’s nine Bodegas Lan wines to seek out

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