Why it matters
The producer
Grupo Barón de Ley looked beyond Rioja in the late 1990s, and Finca Museum was established in 2000. Agricultural engineer Tomás Jurío led the project and the search for vineyards. The winery sits outside Cigales in Valladolid province. Local growers sold vineyards gradually, and the estate grew to more than 200 hectares.
Finca Museum's estate wine tier includes La Renacida. The wine comes from a mixed vineyard where Tempranillo grows alongside Mencía, Garnacha forms, Albillo and Verdejo. Its cellar work combines whole cluster fermentation without added yeast, minimal intervention and ageing with lees in French oak foudres.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Cigales lies a short distance from Valladolid and a few kilometres from Ribera del Duero. The appellation has a continental climate under Atlantic influence. Continental conditions generally bring hot summers and marked changes between day and night, while Atlantic influence can soften those extremes.
Cigales is historically associated with clarete rosé and old vineyards dominated by Tempranillo, locally called Tinta Fina. That regional history places La Renacida among wines made from the area's traditional red grape alongside other varieties planted in the same vineyard.
Wines to know
The range in view
Finca Museum's range places La Renacida Finca Museum in its estate wine tier. It is a red Cigales wine from the 2022 vintage. The vineyard was planted in 1927, with gobelet trained vines on extremely poor soil at 800 metres, over gravel and pebbles on a sandy loam matrix. The yield is between 2,000 and 3,000 kilograms per hectare.
Tempranillo, Mencía, several Garnacha forms, Albillo and Verdejo grow together there. For the 2022 wine, the grapes ferment in whole clusters without added yeast and with minimal intervention. Whole cluster fermentation leaves stems with the grapes, a technique that can bring perfume and spice while changing tannin feel.