95% Tempranillo and 5% Graciano

Food pairing: Suitable for pairing with a long, copious meal where it can accommodate braised vegetables, cold cuts, peppers stuffed with hake and shrimp, mushroom omelettes, cod Rioja style, both red and white meat... and so on

The Cañas family had a long tradition as grape growers and producers, but in 1970 they started bottling cosechero (young) wines, as it was customary in Rioja Alavesa at the time. The arrival of son Juan Luis at the end of the 1980s marked a turning point in the winery towards crianza wines. His obsession was to improve quality by focusing on the vineyard.

The winery (pictured above) owns 100 hectares of vineyards, but it sources grapes from 350 hectares spread across 870 plots, most of them small and lying on clay-limestone soils, which are typical of the area. Nowadays, vineyards and wines are perfectly in tune and selection, both in the vine and at the winery, has improved considerably -even grapes for entry-level Luis Cañas Crianza go through the sorting table. The importance of the vineyard is such that the winery built a residence for grape pickers, a rather isolated case in Spain.