Bodega Alútiz, winemaking tradition and history in Samaniego.

Meet Bodega Alútiz, a family winery that invites us to learn about the history and culture of wine through its guided tour.

We are back with one of those wineries that make you fall in love, the Alútiz winery. Although the Rioja Alavesa has one of the highest concentrations of wineries per square meter, it is difficult to find a different, peculiar and traditional winery. This winery in Alava combines tradition and history to offer us a wine tourism complex with a certain charm, a temple that hides more than 5 centuries of wisdom inherited from generation to generation.

We went to Alútiz on the recommendation of Eva, responsible for Arrolan oil, another of the typical products of this land, the liquid gold of the Rioja Alavesa. A product whose fusion with the wines of Alútiz could be explosive, imagine: a guided visit to Lanciego with Arrolan oil tasting and a guided visit to the Alútiz winery with a tasting of different wines. Undoubtedly, it would become a luxury plan to understand the quality of the land we walk on.

The Alútiz winery is located in the town of Samaniego, in the extension of land located between the majestic Sierra Cantabria and the banks of the river Ebro, in the Rioja Alavesa. Its wines, fruit of the vineyards located in the surroundings of the winery, are within the Rioja Qualified Designation of Origin, a certificate that guarantees its quality and elaboration.

Although on the internet it is common to find indications, comments, reviews and many other texts that allude to the Pascual Berganzo winery, Edu, our host, a guy with an immense desire to transmit his passion for wine, told us that they are unifying all their wines and projects under the name of Alútiz, a new brand full of surprises. To get to Bodega Alútiz without any problems, we must be guided by the signs that lead us to the Pascual Berganzo winery, the name the winery used to have in the past, and signage is not the strong point of this establishment in Alava. In its favor, we should point out that Edu is always attentive to our arrival and plans to include new signs.

At the Alútiz winery they largely avoid the use of chemicals in their winemaking process, using all kinds of ancestral techniques to obtain their different wines, a great little detail that we loved. Less chemicals, more nature, organic products, that must be the future.

Samaniego is full of wineries and not always the right decision is made, but on this occasion, we had little to regret and much to thank, we already have another charming winery to add to our private collection. Although the exterior of the Alútiz winery does not particularly attract the visitor, its interior hides some surprises that make you fall in love with it completely, pay attention to the experience we lived during our guided tour!

History: To know the history of Alútiz we must go back to the seventeenth century, when the winemaking tradition of this family originated. Professionally, the point of origin is found in 1980, a turning point where the production for own consumption gave way to the production and sale to the public.

Eduardo Pascual Berganzo, founder of the winery, created several concrete winepresses typical of the Matarredo neighborhood of Samaniego when he created the winery, spaces that are still used today to create the house’s young carbonic maceration wine. Currently, this Basque firm is in great shape, producing more than 250,000 liters annually, a fairly high volume for a family business that only uses the 70 hectares that the family owns in the Rioja Alavesa.

Attention: Undoubtedly one of the points to highlight. All the people who received us at the winery made our experience more pleasant, more endearing. Of course, we must highlight the figure of Edu, third generation of this family wine producer who struggles to modernize the winery while keeping intact the tradition and history of his family. He is a very good communicator, young and eager to show the world the creations of Alútiz.

Guided tour: After exchanging a couple of emails and the occasional phone call with Edu, we met up for one of the many visits that the winery organizes during the week. The guided tour begins with a brief introduction to the location of the winery, the neighborhood of Matarredo, the old industrial center of Samaniego. An urban space, which today still preserves the large network of subway tunnels that were dug in the past for the preservation of wine, a great heritage that we must protect.

Alútiz preserves the 3 types of wineries that we can currently find in the Rioja Alavesa: 17th century stone winery (the typical caves dug in the ground), concrete winery from 1980 and finally the modern stainless steel tanks that we find in any modern winery today. During the visit, we access each of them in strict order, from most modern to oldest, leaving for the end what for us is the winery with more history and beauty, the winery of the seventeenth century.

We enter the first of the spaces, the stainless steel tanks, the last area built in Alútiz and the most modern, we are struck by the way of elaboration, carbonic maceration, without destemming, completely manual and without the use of chemicals, as God intended. It is curious to see how a small, family winery has an annex room where they make their own experiments, their signature wines, their own homemade R+D+I (Research, Development and Wine Innovation 100%).

We left this space to go out to the back of the winery and visit one of the oldest vineyard plots in Alútiz. These are plants more than 45 years old planted in the old style (mixed varieties and with a very different organization than today) by Edu’s aitite (grandfather in Basque), almost nothing. We set course to the concrete tanks, luckily the winery was producing and the smell of wine guided us through its different spaces to the bottling room, a process in which gravity has a lot to do.

The end of the visit arrives, we leave behind the cellar of stainless steel tanks and concrete to enjoy the tranquility offered by the seventeenth century cave, a small txoko decorated in detail, a very cozy wine cellar in which walls over 100 years old offer us a perfect room temperature, it is time to enjoy the wines.

The moment of truth arrives, the acid test, the tasting. The enviable ambient temperature protects us from the high temperatures outside and the Alútiz wines refresh our throats, undoubtedly the best moment of the day. The tasting, accompanied by nuts, was a complete success, the wines went in by themselves, dangerous for those who had to drive. We missed a little more information about the “why” of the tones or flavors of the wines tasted, a pity.

Wines: Although the Alútiz brand is the jewel in the crown, the winery produces different wines under the brands Alútiz, Raíces de oro or Bastiturri the winery’s other brands.

Rural House: Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to enjoy the rural house that the winery owns in the same town, La casona de Alútiz. An accommodation surrounded by vineyards and sheltered by the Sierra de Cantabria, an epic setting to enjoy this land rich in crops and gastronomy. A perfect accommodation for a weekend of tastings and visits to wineries in the company of friends or family. Who knows, maybe in the not too distant future we will tell you about it, stay tuned to our social networks!

Winebar: Although we are not in favor of Anglo-Saxon concepts, we are sure that if the Winebar of Alútiz follows the line of the rest of the services offered by Alútiz, it will be a success.

TurismoVasco Tiketa: Our exclusive tourist accreditation has gone this time to Edu and his family, an accreditation that values the effort to keep alive the winemaking tradition of the Matarredo neighborhood of Samaniego.

The Alútiz Winery surprises us with its tour of this traditional neighborhood of Samaniego and its 3 wineries, a visit that together with its wines made us happy during our last trip to the Rioja Alavesa.