Ep 546: The Rioja Series - the Rioja Oriental Zone with Raquel Perez Cuevas of Bodegas Ontañón

Wine for Normal People

Alcohol, Lifestyle, Arts, Education, Food, Wine, Dining, Grapes

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This show is the final in a multi-part, in-depth series on the Rioja DOCa in which we have looked at the three major zones of Rioja through the eyes of top producers to tell us about their areas and the challenges they face.

Photo: Raquel Perez Cuevas. Credit: Bodegas Ontañón Facebook Page

This time, Raquel Pérez Cuevas, 4^th generation family member of Bodegas Ontañón joins to tell us about Rioja Oriental (formerly Rioja Baja). Raquel is an agricultural engineer and oenologist, and has traveled the world presenting the beautiful wines of Ontañón.

Ontañón is one of the most highly regarded and best wineries in Rioja. The family started as growers that sold to large companies but in the 1980s, they started making their own wines, breaking with tradition and most of their neighbors in Oriental at the time. The Perez Cuevas family are unique in that they 250ha of vineyards, in around the village of Quel (which Raquel discusses a lot in the show). Their vineyards are also unique because they sit very high in the mountains, even higher than the vineyards of Alta in Alavesa.

In this show, Raquel tells us about Oriental, the differences between the region and Alta and Alavesa, the grapes that grow here (they are different from the other regions – there is much more diversity), and her perspective on what is happening in the region right now.

This series has been so eye opening and this show shines yet another light on this very complex region, which is undergoing a major transition right now.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Wine for Normal People, the podcast for people who like wine, but not the snobbery that goes with it.
0:15.9	I'm your host, Elizabeth Schneider, author of the Wine for Normal People book, and Certified Wine Dork.
0:21.8	Join me as I hit record on this conversation with a friend in the wine industry.
0:26.2	This and all shows with guests are informal that educational discussions between passionate
0:30.9	wine friends. All guests are personal friends or friends of friends in wine, not strangers.
0:36.2	And like any conversation between
0:37.9	friends, we're going to talk back and forth, interrupt each other, laugh, have fun, debate,
0:43.2	tough questions, voice opinions. Most of all, enjoy sharing our time together and with you. If you're
0:48.5	in, pour yourself a glass, pull up a chair, and join us for this great chat.
0:54.5	This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access, the best place to shop for
0:59.3	wine and wine gift cards this holiday season.
1:01.7	And the only place you can get the Wine Access Wine for Normal People Wine Club with selections
1:07.1	I curate.
1:08.2	For an easy gift, go to Wine Access.com slash WFMP and get my holiday
1:12.7	pack for $89 while it's still available. And listen in the middle of the show for more details.
1:20.5	This show is the final in my multi-part in-depth series on the Rioja DOCA, in which we have looked at the three major zones of Rioja through the eyes of top producers to tell us about their areas and the challenges that they face.
1:37.8	This time, Raquel Perez-Cuevas, fourth-generation family member of Bodegas Otonyon, joins to tell us about Rioja Oriental, which used to be Rioja Baja.
1:50.5	Raquel is an agricultural engineer and inologist and has traveled the world presenting the beautiful wines of Otonion.
1:57.3	Otonion is one of the most highly regarded and best wineries in Rioja. I first tasted them at a Rioja Dioca event about a decade ago and fell in love with the wines. I've been drinking them since. I have been trying to get connected with them for years. I'm so happy that the series brought us together. Anyway, back to the intro. The family started as growers that sold to large
2:19.1	companies, but in the 1980s, they started making their own wines, breaking with tradition,
2:23.9	and most of their neighbors in Oriental at the time. The Perez-Quevas family are unique in that
2:30.5	they have 250 hectares of vineyards around the village of Kel.
	...

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