Bodegas BAIGORRI was established in the year 2000 and presented its first vintage in 2002, it was established by Jesùs Baigorri, but he sold the winery in 2007.
The owner of the winery today is Pedro Martinez Hernandez and together with a team of visionaries and the family they make modern wine with a traditional approach.
Baigorri today consists of 55 hectares of vineyards, and they also buy wine from 10 producers on long-term contracts.
Bodegas BAIGORRI has been designed on the basis of maximum respect to the shape and the richness of the grapes and it is located within the village of Samaniego and at the foot of the Sierra de Cantabria mountains.
The glass box of Bodegas BAIGORRI stands perfectly integrated into its surroundings, standing proud in an emblematic position in Rioja Alavesa.
Inside, the winery has the most advanced technology, as a result of technological experiments. The winery goes through a continuous process of improvement; therefore, numerous research projects are being undertaken.
Bodegas BAIGORRI was designed and built by the architect Iñaki Aspiazu. The project responds to the peculiar way the wines is made and is a benchmark for architecture that respects its natural environment.
The building is adapted to the pre-existing topography and all its underground facilities have been harmoniously designed. A place where you can overview how the whole winemaking process takes place.
The whole process is done by gravity, in a vertical process, to preserve the integrity of the grapes as much as possible, so they reach the fermentation intact. All the movement of the grapes and wine is done using gravity, with no kind of mechanical lifting.
There is no hopper at reception and no pumping for moving the grapes or for pumping over in the vats which could damage them, all the way from the sorting tables to bottling the wine, via all the underground floors in the winery, thereby optimising all the phases of the process.
The name MENDI comes from the old Basque language and means mountain.
It refers to the imposing Sierra Cantabria mountains that protect Bodegas Balgorris' vineyards from the cold, humid air coming from the Bay of Biscay to the north.
These mountains are one of the main geographical features that create the microclimate of Rioja that has allowed the population of this region to cultivate grapes for thousands of years.
The Mendi is a classic Crianza.
The Mendi is a Rioja as it should be, only from the best winery like Baigorri.
Just a little more elegant, more precise in the fruit, like so much that we know from Rioja.
And somehow a new type of Rioja that is worth trying.
