Vizcarra
The Vizcarra family’s legacy can be traced back to 1780, to a time when the family sold 16 liter demijohns of wine along the border zones of Segovia and Burgos. However, it wasn’t until recently that Ribera del Duero became a fashionable wine-producing area outside of a few well-known bodegas. In fact, until forty years ago, most of the region’s grapes were destined for bulk wine, showing no real sense of this special place. Fortunately, during the 1980s, José Manuel Vizcarra Aguado took notice of Ribera’s lackluster situation, knowing full well what its vines were capable of creating. He meticulously worked the land and planted new vines, capturing the attention of the top wineries in the region who needed to supplement their own vineyards with the excellent fruit from this family grower. By 1991, his son Juan Carlos joined him at the bodega and became the first in his family to make estate-bottled wines from the family vineyards.
Biography
After studying enology in Rioja, Juan Carlos returned to the family estate with more passion and enthusiasm than ever before, well-equipped and ready to take the reins. His unrelenting quest for the new and unknown led him to produce the first red wine from Ribera del Duero using carbonic maceration in 1995, way before the practice was as common as it is now. His efforts paid off and he immediately won multiple awards for the cuvée. Today, Vizcarra is one of the region’s most highly-awarded wineries, consistently gaining recognition for their advances in microvinification and impeccable, age-worthy bottles. Juan Carlos is also a pioneer of the ‘garagiste’ winemaking movement in Spain, promoting the vinification of small-batch, terroir-reflective wines in the style of former generations of growers.
The family’s legacy is growing, specifically through Juan Carlos’ two daughters, Celia and Inés, who are daily inspiration to Juan Carlos, and for whom he has named his two best vineyards and top wines. Celia, the eldest, has inherited her father’s exacting nature and is studying winemaking in Catalonia, joining her father in the cellar when not at school. Inés, the younger sister, is the extroverted “boss” of the winery – and it’s easy to imagine 10 years from now a multi-lingual Ines explaining the pensive Celia’s work to winery visitors, both always carrying on the incredible Vizcarra family traditions and dedication.
Wines from Vizcarra
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