Pioneer in labelling cosechero wines with its own brand in Rioja back in 1973, Teodoro Ruiz Monge is a winery with a long family tradition based in San Vicente de la Sonsierra since 1870.

It was founded by the great-grandfather, but nowadays it is managed by Teodoro Ruiz and Isabel Bañares, together with their son José Luis, Itu, who has launched new cuvées while maintaining carbonic maceration as the hallmark of all the house's wines. Itu, whose nickname comes from Iturralde, the surname of his maternal grandmother, is clear about the message he wants to convey. "We have to banish the idea that carbonic maceration wines are only meant for quick consumption; I look for long-lived wines that invite you to drink, with good fruit, little oak and a lot of terroir.”

Itu and his family own 10 hectares of vines around the village, and these grapes are used to make the house wines. Itu also works another 24 hectares belonging to his cousin Álvaro, whose grapes they sell to other wineries. In the vineyards they graft the vines with their own plants and do not use herbicides, but he admits that they do treat when necessary, although they always try to do so in the most sustainable way possible.

Ruiz Monge's vineyards are aged around 50 years on average. Tempranillo dominates, but they also grow Garnacha, Graciano and Turruntés, an indigenous but rare variety with which they made their first white in 2020, called Zortún (€8, 1,000 bottles). It comes from a plot in Peciña, near San Vicente, planted some 20 years ago. In addition to Turruntés, Zortún has 5% Viura. The wine, which stays with its lees, is fermented half in French oak barrels and half in concrete tanks.

The wines are still made in the traditional stone wine presses, treading the grapes with the feet; musts are extracted by gravity in concrete tanks and fermented only with their own yeasts. The cosechero red, called Monge Ruiz, is their flagship wine (€4, 25,000 bottles) and is a blend of Tempranillo (85%) plus some Garnacha (10%) and Viura (5%). It is a traditional, honest and simple young wine, whose only purpose is to showcase the fruit.

The same traditional blend of varieties is used in Zurbano (€7, 11,000 bottles), which includes grapes from different plots in calcareous clay soils. It is aged for 12 months in French (75%) and American (2%) oak barrels, but Itu's idea is to transition to vats from the 2021 vintage to better preserve the fruit.

Isabel Bañares (€14, 1,300 bottles) is a single vineyard made by Itu as a tribute to his mother, in which ripe fruit and soft tannins dominate. It is aged in French (80%) and American (20%) oak barrels and, like most of this estate's wines, it blends Tempranillo, Garnacha and Viura, in this case from a 40-year-old vineyard.

La Pacha (€15, 800-1,000 bottles, depending on the vintage) is dedicated to his grandmother María Jesús, who was known in the village with the name of the wine. It comes from a pre-phylloxera plot in La Cóncova, in San Vicente, and was the source of a lot of stories that Itu heard from his grandmother when he was a child. It is a field blend of varieties: Tempranillo, Garnacha, Viura, Mazuelo, Turruntés and Malvasía. The 2020 vintage is aged in 500 litre barrels (225 litre barrels in the previous vintage), resulting in a fresh and fluid red wine with a good mouthfeel.

His most recent red is Desniete, made for the first time in the 2019 vintage (€13, 1,300 bottles). It is a single varietal Garnacha also from La Cóncova, an area between Rivas de Tereso and San Vicente. On this occasion, Itu pays tribute on the label to his dogs, Laia and Turbo, with whom he loves to go for long walks in the mountains. As with La Pacha, the shift to 500-litre barrels in the 2020 vintage has resulted in a fresher wine with crisp, red fruit definition and no oak interference whatsoever.

All Ruiz Monge wines carry the green Rioja genérico stripe as no distinction is made between crianza, reserva or gran reserva.

In addition to the winemaking cellar in the centre of the village, Ruiz Monge has another, more functional cellar that serves as a warehouse, and as a place to age his white and single vineyard wines. Tourists visiting Ruiz Monge area shown around La Primicia cave, bought by the family from the Church and dating back to the 14th century. It is located in the basement of the historic castle of San Vicente, perched on a hill with impressive views of the region, and was an old wine cellar where farmers had to pay their tributes to the church. In that space excavated in the rock and now restored, the family keeps a handful of barrels for people to try their tasting skills but Itu also has a small bottle cellar where he keeps his collection of mature vintages.

By 2022 his idea is to focus on opening up foreign markets without neglecting cellar door sales, which account for 50% of the cosechero wine, as well as to restaurants and wine shops. "We're 100% sure that we don't want to grow beyond what my parents and I, with the help of my cousin, can do," says the Rioja producer.