Malpastor: The fresh face of Rioja from Familia Torres

Julio Carreter, winemaker at La Carbonera.

(Image credit: Julio Carreter, winemaker at La Carbonera)

The first thing they teach at shepherd school, one imagines, is not to lose track of the sheep. But that’s exactly what the malpastors, the ‘bad shepherds’ honoured by Familia Torres’ newly launched Rioja label, ended up doing. The distraction? Planting some of Rioja Alavesa’s first vines.

Founded in 1870, Familia Torres has an even longer heritage – the family’s winemaking roots stretch as far back as the 1500s. Today Familia Torres is a well-established name, with a reputation for quality cemented in the two decades it has spent producing wines in Rioja DOCa on what was once grazing land.

Familia Torres’ most prized Rioja estate, La Carbonera, is now certified as a Viñedo Singular, and lends its name to the company’s Rioja winemaking project, based in the village of Labastida. The vineyards selected to craft this new wine are found in what locals call the Sonsierra: the hills that stretch across Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Alta.

The Sonsierra’s limestone-marl soils are key to Malpastor’s identity.

Reflecting the terroir

‘Malpastor is a wine that reflects the typicity of Sonsierra,’ winemaker Julio Carreter explains, ‘a land of pastures long before it became a land of wine.’

Malpastor Crianza Rioja DOCa focuses on this specific area and its soils. The bush-trained Tempranillo vines (on average 25 years old) sit on terraces shielded by the Cantabrian mountains. La Carbonera holds that the limestone-marl soils enhance the wine’s body and elegance and bring a subtle sapidity, which pairs with the Tempranillo’s fruit-forward character.

Malpastor is a Rioja crafted in a contemporary style: fruit-forward and aromatic.

A reinterpretation of Rioja

Although it proudly reflects its origins, Malpastor is anything but a classic-style Rioja. ‘We combine tradition and modern winemaking,’ Carreter adds, in ‘a tribute to everything we’ve learned.’ The wine matures on its lees for a month in concrete before ageing in barrels – only 7% of which are first-fill. The result is a contemporary wine of elegance and freshness; intense and aromatic, its fruit-forward profile and velvety tannins attest to restrained and well-integrated oak.

Looking back, it’s no surprise that Familia Torres wants to raise a glass to those ‘bad shepherds’ who abandoned their trade, and laid the foundations for another.