Mercedes Garcia Rupérez influences Bodegas Montecillo wines with new styles and categories while maintaining authenticity and tradition
New York, NY, January 4, 2022 — This year, one of the pioneering wineries in the D.O.C. Rioja, Bodegas Montecillo, celebrated 150 years of winemaking. Led by winemaker Mercedes García Rupérez, the winery has modernized the authentic wines, through the development of stringent, precise and respectful wine growing techniques that maintain the brand’s traditions, while delivering a newer, unique expression.
At Bodegas Montecillo, García Rupérez and her technical team use the most innovative winemaking techniques. The wines are made in Ganímede system tanks which feature cleaning systems within the barrels, and bottle ageing processes. The tanks have an exhaustive control of barrel aging, which requires deep knowledge in order to determine the specific barrel that should be used for each style of wine. The team uses a mix of American and French barrels to then determine the specific level of toasting required in order to ensure the continuity of a traditional Montecillo style.
García Rupérez joined Bodegas Montecillo in June 2008, the culmination of a 16-year wine career, following posts in Osborne’s Malpica Estate and vineyards in Chile. “When making a great wine, the most powerful tool we have at our disposal is the raw material,” says García Rupérez. “We categorize and make the wines according to the potential of each vineyard, ultimately picking a different style for each wine based on the terroir.”
Bodegas Montecillo has a separate eco-friendly plantation in Navarrete, Rioja Alta, spread across 3 hectares that offers oenotourisme experiences and focuses on nature preservation. The Montecillo team is molding this unique vineyard to become one of the few classified as a Viñedo Singular Geographical Indication, which designates wines from particular vineyards that are directly linked to the terroir to their label and must meet specific quality requirements. “We believe that in 5 years we will have the ability to craft a young tempranillo wine with a particular verification and aging processes ,” says García Rupérez.
Through long-lasting relationships with the vine growers and the workers who form the Bodegas Montecillo team, the winery prides itself on their consistency and emphasizes their connection to the terroir.
Recognized internationally as one of the most prestigious winemaking regions in the world, Rioja is a strong DOCa that embodies a brand in itself. Bodegas Montecillo aims to deliver every wine style and encourage diversity to enrich the word “Rioja”. One of the winery’s flagship wines, Bodegas Montecillo Reserva, has been recognized as one of the best 25 wines of the world by Wine Spectator magazine. The Bodegas Montecillo Crianza was recognized as the number 1 wine in the Top 100 Best Buy of the prestigious Wine Enthusiast.
About Bodegas Montecillo
Bodegas Montecillo was born in Fuenmayor, one of the towns with the longest history and tradition in the Rioja Alta. Bodegas Montecillo crafts quality wines with a unique personality, through their state-of-the-art location and the selection of the best raw materials to deliver age-worthy wines. Today, it symbolises the philosophy of the winery: a vocation and a character, stemming from the origin and foundation of what is found in the vines. Bodegas Montecillo manages to be coherent and offer consistent quality year after year, thanks to the rigorous selection of grapes, deep experience of aging in barrels and bottles resulting in wines that stand out for their elegance, complexity and balance.
