DOCa Rioja elects its first female president

Rioja has made history twice in one year. Barely a month after Spain’s oldest designation of origin celebrated its one hundredth birthday, DOCa Rioja’s Regulatory Council has elected Raquel Pérez Cuevas as its first female president.

‘It’s an honour to be the first female president of the Regulatory Council – although I won’t be the only one, as women are becoming ever more present in [the wine industry],’ Pérez Cuevas said.

Challenges ahead

During her four-year term as president, Pérez Cuevas will answer to more than 13,000 growers and nearly 600 wineries registered in the Rioja designation of origin. She’ll be tasked with leading Rioja through a tumultuous period. Overproduction and a decline in sales have caused both grape and bottle prices to plummet in the past several vintages, and many growers and producers fear a lack of generational continuity as fewer young people join the wine industry.

The election comes during a politically fraught time for the region. At the end of May, Pérez Cuevas was chosen as president of Grupo Rioja, a powerful association of large wineries that accounts for nearly 90 percent of the appellation’s total sales. She had served as Grupo Rioja’s vice-president since 2015.

Pérez Cuevas will need to address tensions between her own Grupo Rioja and small- and medium-sized wineries, some of whom believe Rioja’s Regulatory Council has historically favoured the interests of large producers. In 2023, Bodegas Familiares de Rioja (an association of around 200 wineries) went so far as to give up its seats on the Regulatory Council, accusing Rioja of operating under ‘a purely economic system based on sales volume’. Although Pérez Cuevas was elected with 99% of the vote, the Asociación de Bodegas de Rioja Alavesa (ABRA) voted against her, while both the Asociación de Bodegas por la Calidad (ABC) and Araex chose to abstain.

Building bridges

‘I’ve met, I’ve spoken with, and most importantly, I’ve listened to all the associations in our council,’ Pérez Cuevas said in her first speech as president. ‘It’s important for me to be able to continue counting on all of you in this new era, where I would like to see dialogue, involvement, debate, unity – which is not the same as uniformity – and loyalty to the appellation that has made us who we are, so that Rioja continues to occupy the place it deserves in the world of wine,’ she added.

Originally from the village of Quel in southeastern Rioja, Pérez Cuevas studied agricultural engineering at the Universidad Pública de Navarra and oenology at the Universidad de La Rioja, as well as an Executive MBA at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas. She has been CEO of her family’s winery, Bodegas Ontañón, since 2010. Under her leadership, LaRioja.com reports, Ontañón has expanded to other wine regions such as Rueda and Ribera del Duero.

Pérez Cuevas thanked former president Fernando Ezquerro and her colleagues in the industry for the trust they’ve placed in her. ‘Our work begins today. We have some exciting years ahead of us, and one of the most beautiful and solid projects in the world of wine,’ she concluded.

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