Bodegas Valdemar

In 1889, Joaquin Martínez Bujanda first began to grow grapes in Rioja, Spain. Nearly 100 years later, the family expanded their vineyards and began construction of what today is known as Bodegas Valdemar. With 125 years of winemaking and five generations of family, Bodegas Valdemar provides the utmost quality to each of their wines as they sit on the border of traditional and modern with their two labels – Conde de Valdemar and Inspiración Valdemar.

In 1983, Bodegas Valdemar broke away from the fixed ideas to become the first European winery to control the fermentation temperature. Today, Bodegas Valdemar wines continue to surprise consumers with their uniqueness and are often classified as an authentic Rioja with great aging potential.

Today, Bodegas Valdemar is complete with a team of professionals who work hard to ensure all of the wines are from the very best land throughout the Rioja region.

All Bodegas Valdemar wines are sourced from their very own estate vineyards. With 670 acres located in the three sub-regions of Rioja, each vineyard comes from a region that offers unique fruit for the wines in which they produce.

Rioja Alavesa – 32,000 acres with an Atlantic influence and soft hills. Wines which come from this region are some of the freshest, most aromatic and elegant wines in the Rioja appellation. The Rioja Alavesa region includes vineyards which produce grapes that go into Conde de Valdemar Crianza, Conde de Valdemar Reserva, Cronde de Valdemar Gran Reserva, Inspiración Selección and Inspiración Las Canteras.

Rioja Alta – 67,000 acres with a Continental climate with plateaus and soft hills as well as ferrous soils. Wines from the Rioja Alta region tend to be classified as full-bodied with high-acidity and are ideal for aging. The Rioja Alta includes vineyards which produce grapes that go into Conde de Valdemar Crianza, Conde de Valdemar Finca Alta Contabria, Conde de Valdemar Reserva, Conde de Valdemar Gran Reserva, Inspiración Selección and Inspiración Tempranillo Blanco.

Rioja Baja – 59,000 acres with a Mediterranean climate with alluvial soils. Wines from this region are darker in color with higher alcohol percentages. The Rioja Baja region includes vinyards which produce grapes that go into Conde de Valdemar Crianza, Conde de Valdemar Reserva, Conde de Valdemar Gran Reserva and Inspiración Selección.

This surprising range of wines is the fruit of the fifth generation of winemakers. Carlos and Ana Martínez Bujanda, after getting to know and studying other appellations of origin and wine-making regions around the world, brought their knowledge and concerns to the family business, creating a new style of Rioja wines.

These are modern wines, very personal whilst each is very distinctive. Wines that are the result of a thorough selection process and work on unique plots of land in the Rioja region. The basis of these wines always consists of Rioja grape varieties, in many cases forgotten or neglected because of their complexity and the work required to cultivate them and make wine from them.

The Graciano and Maturana single-variety wines are those that particularly stand out, the result of rigorous clonal selection of varieties that had all but disappeared from La Rioja. 

Today there are 6 wines in this range: Inspiración Valdemar Selección, Inspiración Valdemar Edición Limitada, Inspiración Valdemar Maturana , Inspiración Valdemar  Graciano, Inspiración Valdemar Tempranillo Blanco and as a novelty for 2013 Inspiración Valdemar Las Canteras exclusively harvested from the Las Canteras vineyard where there is a perfect combination of elegant, expressive Tempranillo grapes with the strength and complexity of Graciano grapes with a strong aromatic intensity.

In Inspiración Valdemar, work continues day after day selecting varieties and plots of land and researching the most suitable wine-making methods for each grape variety, enabling us to continue offering new Inspiración Valdemar wines in the coming future, capable of surprising our customers whilst they enjoy our wine.

The Inspiración Valdemar facilities are located on the same site as Conde de Valdemar whilst being completely differentiated from them. The harvest from the previously selected micro-plots is manual and the grapes are transported to the winery in small crates. The daily harvest is stored in a cold store, which means we are able to vat the grapes at the exact temperature required and thus ensure perfect fermentation to obtain enhanced extraction of flavours and a more stable colour.

The selection table guarantees that only grapes in perfect condition enter the winery.

The wine-making building consists of:

• Small vats between 8,000 and 15,000 litres, which permit us to carry out fully controlled fermentation, separating the grapes by minority varieties and micro-plots.
• Vats for micro-fermentation, with less than 1,000 litre capacity for tests and trials.