Menudas Bodegas: championing small-scale and artisanal winemaking

Can you make a decent living from wine with a production of just 5,000 bottles? In regions like Champagne or Burgundy, some winegrowers manage it, but in Spain success stories are few and far between. 

The association Menudas Bodegas, formed by 11 micro-producers from Rioja, knows firsthand the challenges of running such tiny projects. Most of its members work with their own vineyards, never exceeding that production threshold, which forces them to find creative ways to stay afloat. In fact, none of them live solely off their wine, but last year they decided that small-scale wine production deserved recognition. And that the best way to achieve it was all together.

Forming an official association has not only given them access public funding —it has also amplified their voices, turning individual efforts into a collective movement. “We have been very well received and have gained a lot of visibility since our presentation in September 2024," explains Elena Corzana, secretary of Menudas Bodegas and owner of the Navarrete winery that bears her name.

Beyond the practical advantages, such as sharing the cost of a barrel-washing machine or negotiating better prices for corks, the biggest benefit has been mutual support and the feeling that they are not alone in their efforts. Among their main demands are reducing bureaucracy —which currently forces them to navigate the same paperwork as any large Rioja winery— and eliminating the minimum barrel requirement for certifying ageing in DOCa Rioja. “It’s a barrier to entry. It makes no sense for a winery to need 50 barrels just to prove that its wine has been aged in oak,” argues Adrián Moreno, president of the association and owner of Bodegas Rulei.

Since January, the association has gained another member, bringing the total to 11,and they remain open to welcoming any producer in the DOCa Rioja producing fewer than 5,000 bottles who shares the Menudas Bodegas philosophy. And they are not short of ideas: as well as joining forces for fairs and marketing strategies, they plan to create a wine tourism route through the Rioja villages where they operate. Because if there’s one thing they believe in, it’s that singularity is a strength. And when small things come together, they become unstoppable.

Elena Corzana, Navarrete

Born into a family of winegrowers in Navarrete, Elena spent two decades working in diverse places such as Chile, New Zealand and South Africa before returning to her roots. She transformed an old cowshed into a charming winery, where she now produces just 5,000 bottles of artisanal,terroir-driven wines.

An agricultural engineer, winemaker, grower and sommelier, Elena farms 0.6 hectares of organic vines in Navarrete on alluvial ferrous clay soil that she inherited from her mother. She planted Maturana Tinta there in 2014, a local variety rediscovered only 35 years ago. From these grapes, Elena makes her Maturana Tinta (778 bottles, €45) from a cool, east-west oriented plot. Since 2023 she also makes Minutero (2,000 bottles, €24), a lighter, spicier expression from a north-south oriented site. In both cases, the wines are fermented in tinajas and aged in seasoned barrels.

In Labastida she buys grapes for her Graciano (600 bottles) from a winegrowing friend, while in Galbárruli, on the slopes of the Obarenes mountains, she has partnered with her cousin Jesús Pérez de Urrechu, to produce Lane Greta (1,700 bottles, €18), her only Tempranillo, aged for nine months in seasoned barrels. All of her labels, except the Graciano (inspired by a painting by artist José Uriszar), reference time and clocks as a tribute to her father, Paco, the village clockmaker. Beyond wine, Elena also makes olive oil from an olive grove planted by her grandfather in Navarrete.

Bodegas Gama - Octogenarius, Cárdenas

José García de Pablo has spent 35 years in the construction business but his passion for wine dates back to his youth. Like many in the Najerilla valley, his family grew grapes to sell to third parties. In 2011 he decided to reserve two hectares of his oldest Garnacha vines (90 to 100 years old) from his vineyards in Sobrepalacio, Santa María and Valdechuecas in Cárdenas, to produce his own wine. Named Octogenarius (1,985 bottles, €40), the grapes are meticulously selected berry by berry and destemmed by hand before fermenting in 225-litre French and American oak barrels for 12 months.

In his old family bodega in Cárdenas, he also makes the white Heredad García de Pablo (810 bottles, €18). Made from Viura planted in 1963 on a north-facing vineyard, it is aged six months in French oak barrels. Like Octogenarius, it is classified as a DOCa Rioja Viñedo Singular.

Bodegas Horola, Baños de Río Tobía 

The roots of Bodegas Horola trace back to the village of Alesón, along the Camino de Santiago, where the family has long cultivated vineyards. Javier Hornos and Isabel Olave carried on this tradition but took it a step further by bottling their own wines and selling them directly. Today, their sons Syam and Adrián look after the eight hectares of vineyards, although both Javier and Isabel continue to lend a hand in sales, which is the part that the sons find more challenging. 

Their vineyards in Baños and Alesón, at around 700 metres elevation, have mainly clay-ferrous soils and have been farmed organically for several years, using cover crops. While they sell a substantial portion of their grapes, they retain 3,500 litres to produce five wines. Horola Garnacha (fewer than 1,000 bottles, €18.50), which is made with destemmed grapes from a site in Baños, ferments in a 500-litre rotating barrel; Horola Viura, made from the highest planted Viura vines on the old Tempranillo site, Horola Isabel (1,000 bottles, €48), a Garnacha tribute to their mother, aged in a small second-year barrel, and two Tempranillos, one young and the other from old vines.

Jaime Ruiz, Briones

Jaime Ruiz has managed to combine wine with his other passion: music. As the village bagpiper, Ruiz is part of a traditional music and dance group that enlivens  local festivities. His wines, named after the troqueaos, the wooden sticks used in some popular dances, pay homage to this heritage, with label designs reflecting the theme. 

Ruiz farms 10 ha, selling most of his grapes to large wineries in the area, such as García Carrión and Beronia. However, he keeps close to two hectares he inherited from his grandfather for his own use.

Perhaps inspired by memories of harvesting and treading grapes in concrete vats with friends and neighbours, his first wine (2019 vintage) was a carbonic maceration Tempranillo blended with 25% destemmed Garnacha, aged in barrels for two and a half months. It was named Troqueao El Rey que Rabió (550 bottles, €8), after one of the most popular dances in the local repertoire. His more ambitious Troqueao Edición Limitada (950 bottles, €22)  is also a blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha (30%) , aged for 13 months in oak casks.

Jairus, Badarán

Jairo Morga Manzanares, a journalist by trade, works as PR for the Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos (COAG) in La Rioja and also writes about Basque pelota and gastronomy. His family had always made wine at home, except in years when high grape prices meant selling the fruit was the more practical choice, even financing Jairo's studies. After earning his journalism degree in Madrid, he returned home experimenting with winemaking in plastic vats alongside his grandfather.  This rekindled his interest, prompting him to study wine analysis. After his father's death in 2006, he took over the family vineyards -three plots of land totalling less than one hectare- and immediately converted to organic farming, earning the certification in 2015.

His first vintage under the DOCa seal was 2019, and by 2022 he had his own winery. For the time being, he produces an organic red under the Jairus brand. It is made primarily from a low-yielding Tempranillo clone (95%) that ripens generously. He planted it himself in 2007 using wooden rather than metal stakes. The blend also includes Maturana (4%) and old vine Garnacha (1%) from a different plot. At around €15, production is just under 1,000 bottles. The aim is to gradually reach 3,000 bottles.

La Bodeguita Escondida, Hervías

An economist by training, Toño Larrea Valgañón spends his weekdays working in an industrial hose company’s laboratory. Wine was always a hobby for him, but he was passionate enough to take on the challenge and fulfil all the requirements of the DOCa. Rioja.

Despite its modest scale, his winery embodies the essence of Rioja. He even offers wine tours that not only translate into direct sales, but also reveal a very different picture from what most visitors to the region usually experience. His bodega is housed in a modest building dating from the late 19th or early 20th century, where Larrea's grandparents and great-grandparents once made wine for personal consumption and to pay the wages of the farm workers. The winemaking space is tiny, processing no more than 6,000 kg of grapes, but the underground cellar provides ideal ageing conditions. This is enough to cover the fruit of one hectare of vines. His website aptly describes it as “one of the smallest wineries in Rioja.”

The grapes come from Ollauri, where Larrea grows his vines on clay-limestone soils. He makes four wines: a white, a rosé, a red (1,300 bottles, €28.90 ) and a Garnacha. The brand name for the first three is Ama y Ensancha el Alma... (love and expand the soul), a message of optimism, while the Garnacha is called Garnacheando (380 bottles, €38.90). He also produces olive oil from the local Redondilla variety, under the playful name Olea Jacta Est.

Bodegas Larraz, Cenicero

Wine has been made on the La Cuesta estate in Cenicero since the 1940s, back on the days when it was still a farm. Most of its 17 hectares of vineyards were planted in the 1970s. Today, siblings Carlos and Pilar, the third generation of the Piserra family, manage the property, although both are engaged in other professions.

The winery operates from a space annexed to the main building of the estate, where they produce two organic reds, sourced from the estate’s poorest soils: Caudum (3,700 bottles, €15) and Caudum Viñedo Singular (600 bottles, €25). They come from Tempranillo vineyards (the second one is over 40 years old) and ferment in stainless steel before ageing in new French oak barrels for 12 months followed by the same time in the bottle. The remaining grapes are sold to local wineries.

Bodegas Óscar Pérez, Briones

Óscar Pérez Nanclares is a winegrower from Briones who farms 13 ha of vines and sells his grapes to two of the most prestigious wineries in the village: Miguel Merino and Vivanco. In 2020, encouraged by Miguel, who told him that he had very good vineyards and offered him some space in his winery, Pérez launched his own label, Zaruga.

Zaruga, his family nickname is also, according to Pérez, a pesky weed that irritates the eyes of animals during harvest (as the naif label  suggests). The wine is a co-fermentation of different plots and varieties. He works with a Tempranillo plot covering two fanegas (around 4,000 m2) in El Hospital, where chalky soils yield low but intensely ripe fruit; and another plot in Las Abejas on sandy-gravelly soils with lots of pebbles. The final blend consists of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 5% Mazuelo.

The winemaking is quite simple: destemmed grapes are fermented in plastic vats and the wine is aged in oak barrels. The 2022 vintage, with just over 3,000 bottles, is priced at €26 a bottle, signalling a certain ambition. The next step will be to work on his own facilities. To this end, Pérez is restoring the cellar that his great-grandfather, Severo Pérez, bought in the village in 1860. Even the humblest families have stories to tell.

Bodegas Reminde, San Asensio

Rufino Lecea's personal project is a return to tradition, making wine in a historic underground cellar in his village. If the surname sounds, it’s because his brother, Luis Alberto Lecea, of Bodegas Lecea, served as president of the Rioja Regulatory Board from 2012 to 2024. Luis Alberto is also a staunch advocate for the preservation of San Asensio’s underground cellars of the Barrio de Bodegas.

Rufino's business is much more modest. From his two hectares of vines he selects only his favourite Tempranillos, and sells the rest. The range, which barely exceeds 2,000 bottles, embraces Rioja's new categories. His carbonic maceration village wine (400 bottles, €19)is made exclusively from the free-run juice  of feet-trodden grapes in stainless steel open vats. "Carbonic maceration wasn’t exclusive of Rioja Alavesa,” he argues.

There is also a single vineyard classified as Viñedo Singular (600 bottles, €28) from a plot covering one fanega (about 2,000 m2) that Lecea planted with his father when he was 18, grafting the vines directly in the vineyard . His most widely available wine is Reminde (1,200 bottles, €15), which, like his carbonic maceration red, is made from trellised vines. Reminde, the name of the site where he grows his vines, comes from the Basque word larramendi, meaning pasture. The labels feature works of art by his friend, the painter Ernesto Montero.

Reditus, Cordovín

Flavia Elías is one of the few female producers at Menudas Bodegas, but her age and energy should attract many more to the world of wine. Born in Logroño, she has done harvests in France, California and Rioja, and currently works as a sales representative for oenological products. After spending time in Canada with her partner, Bruno Benés, the pandemic made them realise that having land was the most important thing, so they decided to return to Spain and help Bruno's family in their grapegrowing business.

The return of Bruno and his brother Mario has broughtfresh energy to the family business, along with a clear division of roles. As their website puts it, "Sometimes you have to go to the other side of the world to realise that what is really important is what you already had." 

Their father manages the vineyards while Bruno, a civil engineer, and  Mario, a chemical engineer, handle the paperwork. Meanwhile, Flavia makes the wines. Although the family cultivates 15 hectares, only 5,000 kg of grapes are set aside for their own project.

The most appealing wines, the 23 Reales range, celebrate old vine Garnacha. The  name harks back to a historical document pricing a cántara (an ancient measure equivalent to 16 litres) of wine at 23 reales.  Their Edición Limitada sees six months in oak while their premium wine, 23 Reales La Herencia de Chencho (500 bottles, €19), is a tribute to Bruno and Mario's grandfather. This field blend –mainly Garnacha, with some Tempranillo and Viura– comes from the El Lombo area and is aged for 12 months. They also make an original, food-friendly rosé (450 bottles, €8), blending Garnacha Blanca (75%) and Tinta (25%). Fermentation begins on the skins and the wine is pressed after three days. At this price, the wine is a steal.

Bodega Rulei, Badarán

An architect by profession, Adrián Moreno Llorente has been at the helm of this winery in the Najerilla valley since 2020, inspired by his father, a sculptor and wine enthusiast who began making wine as a hobby in the 1980s. 

In 2011 they recovered a winery in the centre of the village, excavated from the clay soil in the 19th century, and began producing wine more seriously, embracing technology but without compromising their artisan philosophy. They grow 10 hectares of vineyards, vinifying only selected plots while selling the rest to other wineries. 

Rulei Viña El Moral (1,400 bottles, €25) comes from the plot of the same name planted with Garnacha in Badarán in 1918 and is classified as a Viñedo Singular. Initially a rosé was also produced, bu from the 2022 vintage onwards, it was discontinued to allow the red to gain greater freshness and elegance. 

Rulei Viña Barracallo (1,936 bottles, €18) comes from gravelly soils in Castañares, a vineyard very close to the river Oja that Adrián inherited from his mother. Planted in 1985 with Tempranillo, some Garnacha and experimental Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine is a blend of the three varieties and spends 18 months in French and American oak barrels. 

In addition to a white that mixes Viura from Barracallo and Verdejo from a nearby plot (2,000 bottles, €20), the winery's most original wine is Rulei Viña Barracallo Renques de Chenin (650 bottles, €30), a rare Chenin Blanc in Rioja, made from vines planted by Adrián's father in 1985, a true curiosity in the region.

Our favourite wines

23 Reales 2023 Rosado
Elena Corzana Graciano 2022 Tinto
Horola Garnacha 2022 Tinto 
Jairus 2020 Tinto
Reminde Viñedo Singular 2020 Tinto 
Rulei Viña Barracallo Renques de Chenin 2020 Blanco
Troqueao Edición Limitada 2021 Tinto
Zaruga 2022 Tinto