Ermita San Felices, Reserva Rioja Alta (2018)

Grapes: Tempranillo, Grenache, Viura, Malvasia Riojana

Certified Organic and Vegan

This range of wines pays homage to our past generations and the Patron Saint of Haro, San Felices . Every June 29th, on the cliffs of Bilibio where the Hermitage is, take place a famous Battle of Wine. Wine selected by British Airways to serve in its first class and business class.

Visual: intense bright cherry-red wine with lighter tawny hints.
Aromas: there is a concentration of aromas of ripe fruit and vanilla on top of spices and toasted bread.
Taste: Balanced in the mouth, there is a powerful backtaste and a long pleasurable finish to this elegant wine. It will open up and improve for hours in the glass. Great potential in the bottle.

Spontaneous Fermentation
Aged in American oak for 18 months

Bodegas Santalba is a family-run winery that respects La Rioja's long-standing traditions while embracing modern agricultural and winemaking techniques. They produce typical Rioja expressions of Tempranillo, as well as natural wines from other native types, from their 20 hectares of certified organic vines and some carefully selected local sites.

Today, father-and-son pair Santiago and Roberto Ijaba oversee the estate, representing three generations of Iljaba landowners. Santiago's father used to cultivate vineyards for prominent Rioja estates, but Santiago felt impelled to develop his own wine. So, in 1998, he came up with a name that combined elements of "Santiago'' and "Ijalba," and established Bodegas Santalba in the Haro-adjacent town of Gimileo. Today, Santiago and Roberto firmly share the estate's reins: while Santiago seeks elegance and balance in their wines, Roberto seeks concentration without weight, pursuing the finest depiction of Tempranillo.

They collaborate to create Rioja Crianzas, Reservas, and Gran Reservas that reveal layers of complexity in the glass using time-honored procedures such as extended age and hand-racking barrel-to-barrel. They also use modern techniques to nurture other indigenous types, produce single-vineyard wines, and do continual research and development to maximize the antioxidants in their estate grapes.

Santalba encourages biodiversity and soil consistency by avoiding systemic products in all of their vineyards, some of which have vines that are over 90 years old, and their bottles are vegan certified by the European Union's V-Label. Though not all of their grapes are cultivated on their property, Santalba carefully selects their outside sources, primarily family-run vineyards located within a 15-minute tractor ride of their headquarters. Regardless of the location, they are constantly seeking for new and imaginative ways to use their centuries of winemaking knowledge.