Description
About Vina Ijalba Wines
Dionisio Ruiz Ijalba planted his first vineyard in 1975 on a former opencast mine. Onto this land, already exhausted, he added some 50 or 60 cm. of poor soil, which came from land clearance, and in this way he reproduced the traditional soils of quality Rioja vineyards, which had low production, typical of the area – land on the hillsides which was shallow and relatively infertile.
At present Viña Ijalba has more than 90 hectares of their own vineyards around Logroño, San Vicente de la Sonsierra nad Valle del Iregua.
Since its foundation Viña Ijalba has participated in different projects together with research centres for the recuperation of native varieties of Rioja vines, some very minority varieties, which had given the wines of Rioja their individual character and which had been practically given up as lost. With this concern Viña Ijalba has contributed to protecting the biodiversity of Rioja and has become the first bodega in the world to produce wines exclusively of tempranillo Blanco, Maturana Blanco, Graciano and Maturana Tinta.
