Bodegas Casa Juan

Angel Escudero

at a glance:

Founded: 1994

Region: Alava (Rioja)

Village: Laguardia

Climate: Mediterranean & Atlantic influenced

Elevation: 550-700m

Vineyard extension & location(s): 10 hectares in Laguardia, San Vicente, Villabuena and Grávalos

Soils: Calcareous clay

Farming: practicing organic

SUMMARY:

In a region marked by two historical legacies: its late 19th century efforts to scale up, barrel down and buy up grapes from all over the region to meet burgeoning market demand, and the more humble cosechero wines made by growers using grapes from their home and contiguous municipalities, Casa Juan straddles both traditions. Much of the fruit is their own, grown organically, trained en vaso in calcareous clay soils. Most comes from their home village in Laguardia, though they have plots in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Villabuena, El Cortijo, and a tiny family parcel of Mazuelo (Carignane) in the Rioja oriente mountain village of Grávalos. Like the cosecheros, Casa Juan does appreciate the qualities of carbonic maceration, producing a small amount of this style every year. As does the centenarian bodega crowd, however, Ángel values a well coopered and maintained 225L barrel- particularly light toast Pennsylvania oak - used for up to 7 years or longer. Perhaps it is the combination of these two rich regional traditions (cosechero and old bodega) that creates the POV which endears Angel and his wines to those few who are lucky to be in the know!