I’ve long been a fan of the Rioja winery Bodegas Beronia. It began years ago, when I attended a cooking demonstration and lunch hosted by Gonzalez Byass, the winery’s parent company. The event featured pintxos (small tapas) paired with an assortment of Beronia’s red wines, from a young and fruity crianza to an earthy, long-aged gran reserva.

So it was with delight that I recently participated in a Zoom tasting with Beronia’s winemaker Matias Calleja to celebrate the winery’s 50th anniversary and the inauguration of a new, state-of-the-art winery, built into the hills of Rioja Alta, arguably Rioja’s most highly regarded sub-region. Here, the high elevation vineyards produce distinctive, long-lived wines.

The new winery, surrounded by vineyards, is dedicated to the aging of Beronia’s signature reserva and gran reserva wines, and is the first winery in Rioja to obtain LEED pre-certification (Leader in Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Design).

**The new winery sits beneath a plant-covered roof, partially underground, fostering energy savings, by the use of gravity and thermal inertia in the winemaking process.**

Bodegas Beronia was founded in 1973 by a group of food-loving friends from the Basque region. After years spent vacationing in Rioja and drinking copious amounts of the local wine, they came up with a great idea: to combine their passion for great food and wine by creating their own wines to indulge in during their many gastronomic get-togethers. They named the winery Bodegas Beronia as a tribute to the Berones, a tribe of Celtic warriors whose settlements marked the larger region, now known as La Rioja, or simply Rioja.

Bodegas Beronia is especially known for its reserva and gran reserva wines and it was a real treat to taste examples that ranged from 4 to 43 years old, and to see, through the wines, how the region has evolved over time.

Rioja’s red wines are typically categorized according to how long the wine is aged in wood. The jovens and crianzas spend less time in barrels, resulting in a more youthful, juicy, fruity style. The reservas and gran reservas, on the other hand, spend several years maturing in oak barrels and develop complex aromas and flavors that include black plum, toast, roasted coffee, liquorice, earth and spices like nutmeg and anise.

“The secret to the success of Beronia,” says Calleja, “is hard work, attention to detail and making quality wines. That’s what helped put Beronia on the map in Spain and the rest of the world.”

With a modest demeanor, Calleja didn’t mention that each Beronia wine reflects his craftsmanship and skill, acquired during the past 40 years as Beronia’s winemaker and technical director. Calleja has won multiple awards, including numerous 90+ point scores from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and JamesSuckling.com.

During the tasting, Calleja noted that today there is a lot more emphasis on viticulture than when the winery was founded, and that winemakers have now become growers as well.

“There’s a lot more respect for the terroir,” he says, “including the selection that goes on in terms of the different soil types and exactly where the grapes come from. Obviously we have to see if the wines will age as well as the older vintages, but given that there’s so much more work being done in the vineyards, and with sustainability measures that help take better care of the environment, the future is looking very positive for Rioja.”

The Wines

We tasted vintages spanning 39 years, from 1978 to 2017.

Beronia Reserva 2017. 93% Tempranillo, 6% Graciano, 1% Mazuelo. A deep, black plum color, its aromatic, dark red ripe fruit notes shine brightly; a great counterbalance to the roasted nuts and hints of cacao on the palate. Full bodied, with a hint of oak that adds spiciness and structure to a wine that will be able to age for decades. Enjoyable now, paired with the Easter ham.

Beronia Reserva 2015. 95% Tempranillo, 4% Graciano, 1% Mazuelo. A 5-star vintage, this deep black cherry colored wine displays intense aromas of ripe fruit, herbs (mint) and spices. This is a round, full-bodied, flavorful wine with great fruitiness and acidity. Its distinct mineral note, along with hints of tobacco and white pepper give the wine a wonderful complexity.

Beronia Gran Reserva 2001. 88% Tempranillo, 8% Graciano, 4% Mazuelo. The 2001 vintage is considered by many to be Rioja’s best of the century, and this wine is a wonderful testament to its year. A show-stopper, it is velvety and elegant, with vibrant fruit, fine silky tannins and complex notes of mushrooms, vanilla and balsamic. This was my favorite of the five wines tasted.

Beronia Gran Reserva 1994. 87% Tempranillo, 8% Mazueolo, 5% Graciano. This wine was made in a more “modern” style, with longer aging (28 months) in American oak, as well as a higher percentage of deeply-colored Mazuelo, both of which give the wine more structure and body (the wine consuming market demanded more structured, bigger-styled wine in the 1990s). While the wine was good, it was my least favorite of the group—unsurprising since my preference leans towards less oaky wines. But overall, an enjoyable wine, with fruit that remains alive and vibrant, and is drinking really well for its 28 years.

Beronia Gran Reserva 1978. 88% Tempranillo, 8% Mazuelo, 4% Graciano. The first wine Calleja made at Beronia was in 1982 so this 44-year old wine was before his time there. Full of life with black cherry, licorice, and balsamic notes, along with a complex richness, this wine is proof of the ageability of fine Rioja wine.

“The wine is over 40 years of age,” says Calleja, “yet it is still full of life. While there is not a lot of structure to the wine, it still has elegance, balance and great length on the palate. The wine has mellowed out in 40 years, and it is a delightful wine that should be drunk now.”

These impressive wines can be found at your favorite restaurants and local wine retailers.