Why it matters
The producer
Janire Moraza makes Tempranillo in San Vicente de la Sonsierra without a single oak barrel in the winery. In a region where Crianza and Reserva classifications are built on months or years of oak contact, that is a deliberate argument about what Rioja can taste like.
The family has farmed in this village for six generations. Janire took operational control in 2011 and made her first vintage as head winemaker in 2013. Since then she has moved steadily toward earlier harvests, lower alcohol, and a fruit profile that sits closer to fresh red cherry than to the dried-fruit richness that characterises most Rioja sold at scale. The winery holds 23 hectares across 13 parcels, all certified organic or biodynamic, making Moraza one of very few producers in Rioja with dual certification.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
San Vicente de la Sonsierra sits in the western part of Rioja Alta, close to the Basque border, at the base of the Cantabrian and Toloño mountain ranges. Those mountains do specific work: they block Atlantic rain, funnel cool air down through the vineyards at night, and push the growing season into conditions that reward picking earlier rather than later.
Moraza's parcels run from 400 to 650 metres above sea level. Eleven are in San Vicente de la Sonsierra itself; two are in the nearby village of Abalos. That altitude range is wide for a single producer's holding, and it is the physical explanation for what Janire is chasing in the cellar: grapes that reach phenolic ripeness before the sun has cooked the acidity out of them. The label carries no Crianza or Reserva classification because the wine is aged in concrete rather than oak. Without oak time, it cannot claim those designations, and Janire has not sought them.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The 13 parcels are farmed by hand under biodynamic and organic protocols, without synthetic pesticides or herbicides. All grapes are native Rioja Alta varieties: Tempranillo is the dominant planting, with Garnacha, Graciano, Viura, and Garnacha Blanca making up the remainder. Harvest is timed early, when phenolic ripeness is reached but before the grapes lose their natural acidity.
Inside the 1983 winery, the three-floor gravity-flow design moves fruit and must without pumps. Fermentation happens spontaneously in concrete tanks with the wild yeasts present on the grape skins. No commercial yeasts are added. The wine is aged in those same concrete tanks. No oak of any kind enters the process. Concrete keeps the wine in a neutral environment: it neither adds flavour the way oak does nor strips it the way stainless steel can. What comes through in the glass is grape and place, not barrel.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range centres on the Moraza red, a single wine made entirely from Tempranillo grown across the parcel network in San Vicente de la Sonsierra and Abalos. It is fermented spontaneously in concrete and aged in concrete, with no oak at any point. The wine sits outside the mainstream Rioja classification system: no Joven, no Crianza, no Reserva designation built on oak time.
The Moraza red is the documented core of what the estate produces and sells.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Moraza, 100% Tempranillo, is the wine. It is the only confirmed bottled expression, and it is also the clearest argument the estate makes: Tempranillo grown at altitude in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, fermented with wild yeasts, aged in concrete, harvested early for freshness. No oak anywhere in that chain.