Born and raised in Navarrete, La Rioja, Elena’s family has been involved in viticulture and winemaking for generations. One of Elena’s earliest memories is of visiting the family vineyard with her grandfather, riding on the tractor, from that moment she knew what she loved.
Elena is a veritable multifaceted talent, she’s an agricultural engineer, oenologist, sommelier, viticulturist, and now produces her own wines. After her studies, Elena worked in renowned wineries in Rioja, Montpellier France, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Chile before finally returning home to focus on making wines from her family’s vineyards. Apart from wine, Elena also produces small batch artisanal olive oil from her family's olive grove.
She works with native grape varieties of Rioja, Graciano, and a very rare variety called Maturana Tinta that had all but disappeared, but was rediscovered in Rioja in 1991. The grape’s genetic profile coincides with that of the almost extinct French variety, Castets, a cousin of Cabernet Franc.
Initially there were 35 vines of Maturana found in Navarrete, today there are roughly 229 hectares across Rioja, but Elena owns the first vineyard (passed down from her mother) planted with this variety. "There are a total of 2,000 vines in two plots that I completed with more plants in 2014 in the La Lámpara area.”
Elena’s obsession is to restore the authenticity of Navarrete’s lost terroir by planting more native Maturana vines, but also by restoring the traditional hands-on approach to winemaking. Everything is done by hand, her yields are small, her vineyards are organic, and she produces some 2000 bottles per season.
Navarrete is a crossroads, one of the most notable stops on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and also the Ignatian route, and in its day it was also an important wine town, home to centuries-old wineries.
"I would like to collaborate in returning my town to the wine map, from which, for various circumstances, it has been diluted and I think that the Maturana Tinta from Navarrete is a good opportunity, since we have good soils, a cool microclimate and, perhaps what we lack is looking more towards the origin and identity of our vineyards.”
Elena’s hometown of Navarrete is also the cradle of the famous red clay which gives life to the area’s alfarería (pottery). Elena’s paternal grandfather was a potter. The local clay is used to handcraft tinajas (amphoras) in which the wine is fermented and aged. The clay from Navarrete is very mineral and pure, and has a lower porosity than those from La Mancha; producing the wine in tinajas helps to maintain the characteristic qualities of the grapes and gives the wine a well-rounded mouth feel.
"The clay gives the wine a more complex and elegant character, and also helps to preserve the freshness and acidity of the grape, allowing it to express itself in a more natural way."
That is precisely what she wants to achieve, to reflect the essence of a terroir that she has come to know with the passing of the years and that she has decided to recover to its former glory.