200 Monges, carving a name in aged Rioja wines

Few relatively modern wineries have worked as hard as Vinícola Real 200 Monges to establish themselves. How do you gain recognition as a producer of aged wines when you are far from Rioja's most prestigious areas?

Exploring new terroirs is all the rage these days, but when Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, who turns 63 in April, started his project in the early 1990s, things were very different. At a time when the modern Rioja movement was taking off, driven by estates like Artadi, Sierra Cantabria, Finca Allende or Roda, he found himself 13 kilometres south of Logroño, next to the river that divides Rioja Alta from Rioja Oriental.

According to the DOCa Rioja, his village, Albelda de Iregua, belongs to Rioja Oriental. The description on the Regulatory Council's website is far from enthusiastic: “The River Iregua flows through it; on the left bank, there are some terraces that have created a closed landscape, while the right bank is kind of sloping badland. The town is known for its rich irrigated agriculture and the development of a large industrial sector that employs a high proportion of the people who live there.”

Yet Rodríguez remains undeterred. “Being teased can be an incentive," he says defiantly, viewing 200 Monges as a testament to determination.

Liquors, Antigua Usanza and back to the Iregua valley

Although his family was not directly involved in the wine business -his father founded Licorería Albendense in the 1960s- Rodríguez pursued his passion studying at the Escuela de la Vid y el Vino in Madrid. In 1989, together with some family members and other partners, he co-founded Antigua Usanza in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, a winery built for large-scale production.

However, he longed for a more personal project. He decided to expand a small cave he owned on a hillside in Albelda de Iregua, commissioning the same company that had built Antigua Usanza’s underground cellar. A landslide during construction forced him into a major rebuild, which ultimately resulted in the current bodega, featuring an 800-metre-long underground cellar. After experimenting with winemaking in 1992 and 1993, 1994 became the first official vintage of Vinícola Real.

Rodríguez remained involved with Antigua Usanza until 2006, when he decided to focus entirely on Vinícola Real. In 2014, Bodegas Familiares Matarromera bought the Antigua Usanza facilities in San Vicente to establish its Rioja operation. From those years in Rioja Alta, Rodríguez retained three hectares of vineyards in San Vicente de la Sonsierra and developed a deep understanding of the vineyards in the Alto Najerilla valley. He began to buy grapes here in the mid-1990s to compensate for rising pH levels in Tempranillo grown in the Sonsierra area, which he attributes partly to its limestone soils.

Meanwhile, Tempranillos from the Iregua valley, where clay soils are prevalent, do not experience this pH problem. However, they produce wines with rustic, strong tannins that require long ageing shaping both the style (and prices) of the red wines produced by Vinícola Real.

Forging a signature style

Historically, the Najerilla valley was dominated by claretes, a traditonal rosé blend of white and red grapes. Miguel Ángel remembers how his father once sold sugar from his liquor business to cooperatives, that had to chaptalise their wines as the area’s grapes struggled to ripen.  In contrast, red wines were the norm in the Iregua valley, albeit with generous amounts of white grapes in the blend to wrap up the tannins.

At Vinícola Real, Rodríguez has developed a refined red blend, relying on his own vineyards, mainly from Albelda de Iregua (around 70%), supplemented by Tempranillo from San Vicente and Garnacha, and some Tempranillo from the Alto Najerilla valley. Over time, Graciano was gradually introduced, and a couple hectares of red Maturana were planted.

In addition to the 3ha in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, the winery owns 11ha in the Alto Najerilla valley, with Badarán (5ha) as the main spot. The rest, around 40ha of organically certified vineyards, lie in the Iregua valley between the villages of Albelda de Iregua and Nalda.

The project started with just 2ha of vines in the Vallejuelo site, on the right bank of the River Iregua. Today, this has expanded to 6.5ha. The soil is clay with sandstone and some limestone. In fact, the hillside where the winery stands was once a limestone quarry. Soils with overlapping layers of clay and compacted sand, resembling a mille-feuille, are very common in this area. Nearby, at a slightly higher elevation, lies La Raposa, a site with clay and gravel-rich soils.

In 2008, Rodríguez bought Las Viñuelas, a 20-ha property next to the river, also known as Convento de los Frailes. Of its 15ha of vineyards, 12ha include white grapes, planted between 2011 and 2012. The soil, consisting of one metre of clay and washed sand atop a gravel base, yield wines with softer tannins.

Another main site is La Rad, a flat, stony area with red sand on the left bank of the Iregua River, halfway between the villages of Albelda and Nalda. Holm oaks are planted here alongside some very old Viura vines.

Generally, wines that are ready to drink earlier are bottled as Cueva del Monge (€20-22). Although ageing times mean that they could be labelled as Reserva, they are sold as generic. Wines that require a longer ageing period are destined for 200 Monges. This range includes the Reserva and Gran Reserva categories, as well as Selección Especial, a distinction for wines released after 10 years of bottle ageing. Current red releases include Cueva del Monge 2019, 200 Monges Reserva 2014, 200 Monges Gran Reserva 2008 and 200 Monges Selección Especial 2010. In whites, the current vintage is also 2019 for Cueva del Monge, while the Reserva is 2011, the Gran Reserva 2010 and the Selección Especial 2007. 

Annual production stands between 200,000 and 220,000 bottles. This figure includes the new 200 Monges Reserva rosé, first released in the 2017 vintage; the sweet Vendimia de Invierno, made partly from grapes with botrytis (Esencia is made exclusively from botrytised grapes), and the modern, powerful single-vineyard Confesor, of which less than 3,000 bottles are produced. Red wines account for 75%.

The secret to a wine’s longevity

How can you tell if a wine will age well? "I wait a long time before bottling and track its evolution in stainless steel tanks for four to six years. I'm not worried about the reductive atmosphere -eventually the wines are racked and exposed to oxygen," Miguel Ángel explains.

Bottle ageing is particularly important. Wines destined for extended maturation are stored underground in the 'archives', where the bottles are enveloped in a thick layer of mould, as was customary in Rioja’s ancient cellars. The only modern tweak?  A plastic capsule to protect the corks. This timeworn, mouldy, dust-covered aesthetic turned heads at Salón de Vinos del Tiempo, held in Madrid last November.

For whites, Rodríguez applies must hyper-oxidation using an open pneumatic press. "The resulting wine initially comes out slightly brown. The Regulatory Board has rejected samples on several occasions on the grounds of oxidation, so we’ve had to send them back for a second tasting," he says.

Those unfamiliar with the long ageing required by 200 Monges reds due to the tannic nature of their grapes, often find themselves enamoured with the whites. The entry-level Cueva del Monge (€21), aged  four to six months in barrel, is a favourite among visitors. Aged in 225- and 500-litre casks, it offers a good balance of oak and smooth texture, earning a spot on the wine list at Arzak, San Sebastian’s famous three-Michelin-starred restaurant, for several years. The 200 Monges Reserva (9,000 bottles, €44) takes complexity to another level. The 2011 vintage shows elegant reduction, smoky notes, wax, citrus peel and  seductive texture. Made from 90% Viura and 10% Malvasía, it blends grapes from the Iregua valley (60%) and Cañas (40%), in the Alto Najerilla valley. Even more compelling is the Gran Reserva 2010 (€75-80), with its superb combination of acidity, toasted notes, ripe citrus and spicy undertones.

For the adventurous, the  rosé (€50) is a revelation. With 70% Viura and30% Garnacha, it delivers a juicy, firm wine that might tempt curious drinkers. Sooner or later, however, you may find yourself drawn to the firm, tight reds, where maturity varies by vintage. The Gran Reserva 2008 (€70), from what is arguably the coldest vintage of the 20th century, shines with vibrant acidity, while the Selección Especial Reserva 2010 (€72) bursts with lively blue fruit and even hints of violet.

Accommodation, art and medieval codices

Fine wine and long ageing alone weren’t enough to carve out a reputation in the crowded Rioja scene. To set Vinícola Real apart, Rodríguez turned to history, unearthing a compelling narrative that would captivate visitors. The winery’s story is intertwined with the San Martín de Albelda monastery, once a medieval cultural hub. According to records from 925AD, it housed 200 Amanuensis monks –the inspiration behind 200 Monges- and played a role in two major historical milestones. 

First, it recorded the earliest documented pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago. The Bishop of Puy, en route to Santiago de Compostela, stopped at Albelda de Iregua to request a book copy from the monks that he would collect on his return. Second, it produced the so-called Crónica Albeldense or Codex Vigilanus, a book copied at the end of the 10th century by the monk Vigila. Among its ornate illustrations is the first recorded use of Arabic numbers in the Western world.

These two milestones inspired the Vinícola Real's award-winning wine tour (Best Of Wine Tourism International 2022), which fuses wine and history . The tour ends at the Cueva de los Monjes (Monks' Cave), where visitors can admire facsimiles of these medieval manuscripts.

Vinícola Real also claims to have opened Rioja’s first winey hotel in 2004, hosting a vibrant calendar of cultural events, such as the Erotic Storytelling Festival in February, the Day of Books and Theatre in April, or the Musical Homage in the Garden in June. The winery also serves as a permanent gallery for works by Luis Burgos, a painter from Logroño and a good friend of Rodríguez. Dinners, events, and the wine bar provide the perfect backdrop to showcase the wines.

When you work on the edge, both geographically and conceptually, you have to play every card in the deck. Perhaps the winery’s next defining moment will come with a village wine bearing the name Albelda de Iregua on the label. The aim is to introduce the Iregua Valley to people and, as Rodríguez says, "to convince even the most sceptical that, beyond fruit trees, we have quality vineyards and good wines".