Although she trained as an agricultural engineer, Berta Valgañon used to work in the construction sector. One day in 2019 she decided to change her career path to focus on growing and looking after the family's hundred-year-old vines in Rioja and prevent them from being uprooted.
The fourth generation of winegrowers in Villaseca (pop. 30), Berta restored an old cellar belonging to her uncle in the winery district of Cuzcurrita de Río Tirón and began to make her two ranges of wines there. Pretium is the brand for centenary vineyards and Berta Valgañón for wines with a faster turnover.
It's not an exaggeration to say that Berta is a bit of a one-woman band. Although she has occasional help with the harvest and bottling, Berta does all the work herself in the winery and in the vineyards, where she owns 10 hectares farmed organically -some of which she planted herself- of nine different grape varieties in Villaseca and Fonzaleche. It is a cold area, at an elevation of 500-600 metres, with wide temperature contrasts between day and night, where many Haro wineries have traditionally sourced grapes for their blends. The grapes from five of her hectares are sold and the rest are used to make six wines that currently produce a total of 17,000 bottles.
Her Berta Valgañón range starts with the Rosé (1500 bottles, €11), which blends young, goblet-trained Garnacha with 10% Malvasía and another 10% old vine Calagraño. According to Berta, Calagraño is a very productive variety but she has managed to reduce its size to fit one bunch in her hand, maintain its acidity and gain in concentration. After macerating the grapes with their skins for a whole day, the wine is fermented and aged in a flextank egg. Deep in colour, it has good acidity and a savoury bitterness with a saline touch that refreshes the palate.
Berta Valgañón tinto (2,700 bottles, €14) is predominantly Tempranillo with some Garnacha, Graciano and Maturana. Until the 2019 vintage it was made only from Tempranillo, but from 2020 she decided to include the other varieties for greater complexity and freshness. Part of the wine is fermented in concrete, part in flextank and part in 500- and 600-litre foudres where it is also aged. Mineral and with lively acidity, it is a wine with good ageing potential. Both on this and on the rosé label, Berta indicates that her vineyards are in "Region I Winkler & Amerine", referring to the climate index to classify the different wine-growing areas of the world.
The Pretium range comprises three wines. The White (2,000 bottles, €18) blends Viura (60%), Malvasía (20%) and Calagraño (20%) from two dry-farmed plots planted at the beginning of the 20th century. Fermented on its lees until March and aged in three seasoned French oak barrels, the result is a white wine with good acidity, notes of white flowers, saline and herbaceous and with volume on the palate. Pretium Etiqueta Negra (2,200 bottles, €24) comes from a 120-year-old hillside plot and is almost all Tempranillo with a small amount of Garnacha and Graciano. It is fermented in 500-litre French oak before ageing in 220-litre barrels for 18 months. It is the most classic of the range, with its black fruit and violet notes, good concentration and mineral nuances.
Pretium Garnacha (300 bottles, €36) comes from century-old vines in La Hontanilla vineyard and is made in clay tinajas to achieve ripeness of fruit but without losing freshness and depth. The Garnacha is the only one of her wines to be labelled as Viñedo Singular although the entire Pretium range is certified as such (the other wines did not pass the Regulatory Board tasting). Like the rest of her range, she only adds sulphites before bottling.
Her latest release is Maturana Región I (1,500 bottles, €14), made in concrete tanks from vines that Berta herself planted in goblet vines. It is a variety that she is learning about with each vintage, but Berta says it is very suitable for organic farming because it is resistant to powdery mildew and downy mildew.
Berta Valgañón, who is a member of the association Bodegas Familiares de Rioja, accepts visitors by appointment and personally shows them around the vineyard and the winery.
