At just 30 years old, Carmen F. Uriarte comes from no winemaking dynasty, but what she does have is technical training, curiosity and a deep emotional connection to the territory. Born in Madrid, she spent much of her childhood in Fuenmayor, her father’s hometown in La Rioja, in a family where wine was always part of everyday life. One of her uncles owned an underground cellar in Lapuebla de Labarca (Rioja Alavesa) and Carmen would help with bottling from an early age, though she could hardly have imagined then that she would one day settle in the village and manage her own winery.

Trained as an agricultural engineer with a master’s degree in oenology, her early professional focus was viticulture. During the period she worked alongside José Ramón Lisarrague, a researcher and academic, she visited vineyards across Spain and gained a broad understanding of different growing models. The turning point came in 2022, when she did a harvest with the Zuccardi family in Argentina. It was her first real experience inside a working winery and, as she recalls, the moment she realised wine could become her profession. She later worked as a viticulture technician at Bodegas Bilbaínas in Haro before joining Julián Palacios at Viticultura Viva in early 2023.

While continuing her work with Palacios, Carmen began making tiny experimental batches of her own. She started with just 200 kg of grapes given to her by a cousin, a 200-litre tank installed in her parents’ garage in Fuenmayor and a few basic tools sourced through Wallapop: a small 50-kg press and a pump. That hands-on spirit still defines the project today.

In 2023 she met veteran grower Txutxi Muro and the connection was immediate. Muro not only offered her space in his cellar in Lapuebla, but also placed remarkable trust in her almost from day one. Carmen began helping with his wines, called Harresi, while learning first-hand the subtleties of traditional Rioja Alavesa carbonic maceration. “He welcomed me as though I were family,” she says.

Muro, who had been planning to retire that same year and whose son had chosen a different profession, eventually suggested that Carmen continue the winery’s activity. In 2024 she took over the running of the cellar, which she now leases. Txutxi, however, remains very much part of the picture: he still keeps his txoko —the traditional dining and social space— inside the winery and drops by almost daily with friends. Carmen enjoys listening to those conversations because, she says, that is where you also learn about Rioja.

The young winemaker is determined to preserve the traditional figure of the Rioja Alavesa cosechero, the grower who farms the vineyards and makes wine from them. For her, it remains one of the defining identities of the region in an increasingly globalised wine world.

The backbone of the project is therefore carbonic maceration in the Rioja Alavesa tradition, following the path laid down by Txutxi. The 2024 vintage was Carmen’s first and total production reached around 20,000 litres. While many wines in the area tend towards riper profiles, she aims for greater freshness and drinkability by harvesting slightly earlier and working with lower fermentation temperatures, albeit without abandoning traditional methods.

The wines

Mahaia, her entry-level wine (2,600 bottles, €10), captures that philosophy particularly well. Made from 95% Tempranillo with 5% Viura and Graciano, it comes from grapes bought from the grower farming the vineyards formerly owned by Txutxi, along with fruit from other growers in Lapuebla de Labarca and Laguardia. Fermentation takes place in the concrete tanks traditionally used by Rioja Alavesa growers, where the wine then rests for four months. The result is a supple, easy-drinking red with ripe black fruit and plenty of freshness. The name itself plays on the idea of a table wine: mahaia means “table” in Basque.

Labaia (4,000 bottles, €16.50) moves things up a notch in ambition. This Tempranillo blend from different Rioja Alavesa vineyards also ferments in concrete before ageing for eight months in French oak, mostly used barrels with a small proportion of new wood. There is also a white Labaia (500 bottles), made from old bush-trained Viura purchased from a grower in Laguardia and aged on lees for 10 months in seasoned 225-litre barrels.

More distinctive still is Remango (1,300 bottles, €20), conceived as a tribute to Txutxi and to older ways of making wine. The name refers to the first of the three traditional stages carried out during fermentation after the grapes have been foot-trodden in the open concrete lagares or vats: remango, pie and trasnocho, the final overnight draining stage. After alcoholic fermentation, the wine is aged in 500- and 600-litre barrels.

Alongside this more traditional range of regional style wines, Carmen is also developing a second line of village and single-vineyard bottlings under the Carmen F. Uriarte label. For these wines she works with four leased vineyards in Laguardia belonging to a recently retired grower, plots that Txutxi helped her find and which she sees as full of potential —and as an ongoing source of learning. Each vineyard is vinified separately, with destemmed fruit, spontaneous fermentations in plastic vats and 10 months’ ageing in seasoned 500-litre barrels. Sulphur is added only at the end; the wines are fined with egg whites but left unfiltered, unlike the carbonic maceration reds.

For now, the range includes Carmen Uriarte Viñedos en Laguardia Tinto, a wine that reflects the depth of old vines, with generous black fruit, fragrant aromatics and a broad, enveloping palate. It retails at around €30.

Although the growers she works with currently farm conventionally, Carmen hopes to move progressively towards organic and more sustainable practices in the vineyards she manages directly. For now, the entire project is financed through her own savings and the support of her parents, without public funding.

During the 2025 harvest, around 35,000 kg of grapes entered the winery, mostly Tempranillo but also Viura. Carmen also brought in small experimental lots of Garnacha from an old vineyard in Cordovín and Graciano from Elciego, varieties and origins she wants to continue exploring before deciding what role they might play in future wines.

The winery, based in Lapuebla de Labarca, is open to wine tourism visits for small groups by prior appointment only, in keeping with the intimate, personal nature of a project that already feels like one worth watching closely.