91pts Decanter

A fine choice for summer drinking, this is a field blend of Garnacha, Tempranillo, Viura and Malvasía from a vineyard planted in 1957. An unoaked clarete style, it is fresh, floral and lightly fruity. Lovely slightly chilled. Wines from the Bodega Classica group, which includes Viñedos El Pacto and Hacienda López de Haro, are reliably good value.

90pts Wine Enthusiast

This ruby-colored wine offers a bouquet of pomegranate and raspberry with a whiff of earthiness. Cherry and cranberry flavors are backed by milk chocolate, eucalyptus and dried thyme notes. A light floral flavor lingers into the soft finish.

90pts James Suckling

A paler cherry-colored Rioja with aromas of fresh raspberries, strawberries, lavender and thyme. Fresh and juicy, with a medium body, easy tannins and lovely drinkability.

Tasting Notes

A wine that revives the most authentic local tradition, a red with a white soul. 

A red with very little depth of color, hence its name. It shows great vivacity and preserves its red tones intact, so typical of the Garnacha variety, which denotes energy andyouth. It has a great shine which, together with the great intensity of the red tones, gives the glass superb luminosity.

Intensely aromatic, it retains its primary aromas, despite being an aged wine. The influence of Garnacha stands out fundamentally with notes of red fruits, strawberry yogurt and light touches of lollipop. Certain fresh tones are also perceived, with balsamic, floral and citrus notes, more typical of white varieties. And in the background, creamier and more enveloping nuances appear, the result of its aging in oak vats. A crystal-clear wine that denotes freshness and a great fruity character.

It is a “long drink” wine, with great fluidity throughout its entire journey in the mouth. It is accompanied by a notable acidity, yet this acidity is well incorporated into the smooth sensations and delicate texture that it offers. It forgoes the structure of red wines to reveal its entire delicateness, with a pleasant, smooth touch, mirroring a white wine. Its aftertaste is highly complex, intertwining the sensations of fruit with spicy nuances and enveloping notes provided by oak-vat aging. Pure elegance within a harmony of varieties.

About the Wine

Viñedos El Pacto is a tribute to our forefathers, with a generation dedicated to preserving the precious wine history of Alto Najerilla and La Sonsierra, two Rioja regions with strong ties to our roots.

Historically, these regions have been almost entirely dedicated to vine cultivation. El Pacto means returning to that throwback viticulture, which takes care of the environment, with the minimum possible intervention, which does not seek the highest production, but allows nature to follow its vital course. Craftsmanship is a natural stage in the development of this raw material: manual harvesting, spontaneous fermentation, and respectful aging to highlight the results of diligent labor in unique vineyards that express themselves through the wine.

This effort to resurrect ancestral traditions resulted in the creation of “Ojo Gallo,” a wine renowned in the Alto Najerilla region during the coldest decades of the 20th century and named for its color. Just as in other areas the Ojo Gallo is an intense claret, in Cárdenas it has always been a red with little color. We are proud to have saved this virtually extinct wine in order to preserve these enological and, why not, ethnological gems of our culture.

Grape Varietals: Garnacha Tinta and Viura, although there are also loose strains of Tempranillo, Malvasía, Graciano, Mazuelo and some unknown varieties. In all the plots, white and red varieties coexist, with reds being the majority.