Some days remind you why you chose this profession. Last Friday, in Haro, was one of them.

I arrived at López de Heredia with Noelia, my wife, and left with an idea that had been on my mind for years and that, at last, had a taste: we sommeliers do not do justice to the traditional wineries.

At López de Heredia we were looked after by Elena, who knows the whole history of the house by heart, and in a winery with so much history that is no small thing. Visiting its premises is like stepping into a black-and-white suspense film written by Hitchcock himself. And in that setting they poured us a Viña Bosconia and a Viña Tondonia, and all I could do was take my hat off. I had already spent years in a row tasting vintages of Tondonia white and red, Bosconia and Gravonia thanks to my friend Aniceto García, a collector of López de Heredia wines. Its founder, Don Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta, began building around 1877 the buildings that still stand today in Haro. Almost a century and a half later, time has not been its enemy: it has been its best ingredient.

And the day had only just begun. At La Rioja Alta, founded in 1890 in Haro's Station District, we were welcomed by its commercial director, Alberto Roth, who had very little spare time. Even so, almost like doing a friend a favour, he let us taste the Gran Reserva 904 and the Gran Reserva 890. Two reds that, for me, are among the best in Spain. They do not shout, they need no fashionable story or designer label: they carry more than a century of memory inside. Even their names tell it, because they descend from the Reserva 1890 and Reserva 1904 that started it all.

We look so far outward, at whatever is fashionable, that we forget what we have at home.

That sentence came to mind while we were eating in a bar on Calle del Laurel, in Logroño. Noelia and I, turning it over. Because nowadays it seems that what is “top”, the very top, is a Burgundy or a Jura from biodynamic viticulture. Without taking anything away from anyone, something has got out of hand: what has always been there is taken for granted, for old, for boring. I admit that some historic houses overdid it with industrialisation in the 1990s. But generalising is not fair, and there are century-old wineries with simply exceptional wines.

Tell me honestly: how many sommeliers today open, without complexes, a Viña Tondonia reserva, a 904 or a Gran Muralles from Torres in their restaurant? Very few. And it should be normal.

I then remembered Juan Luis García, a great friend from Murcia who was once sommelier at Casa Marcial. He came to visit me in the Canary Islands and we met in a little bar next to his hotel. I opened the wine list, looking for the most decent thing on it, and he said, without blinking: “What a problem you have, Iván: the Añares crianza is a cracking wine.” He was absolutely right. A hug, Juan Luis, this blog is for you. A traditional crianza, well made, can be a great wine on any list.

This is nothing new for me. Back in 2009 and 2010, at the restaurant Tristán in Mallorca, I was already opening the great Riojas of the 1940s, 50s and 60s: Bordón, Siglo Saco, Conde de los Andes, Tondonia itself. I ranked them alongside the great châteaux of Bordeaux, the reds of the Côte d'Or and the best of Napa Valley. But then, people have looked at me strangely all my life.

As a teenager I was “the weird one” at school. While my friends listened to whatever was modern, the thumping “chunga, chunga”, I walked down the street with my cassette player: the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Fórmula V, Los Bravos, Los Diablos and company. Nobody understood why. Today I understand it better than ever: the classic is not the old, it is what remains when everything else has passed. (I still listen to all of this 😊)

It is the same with wine. These wineries have worked very hard, for generations, and have given their names to regions, grape varieties and, to a large extent, our country. They are our great-grandparents, the creators. I am not asking you to stop exploring; I am asking that the next time you put together a wine list or choose a bottle, you give them a chance too. Sometimes the best novelty has been waiting for you for over a hundred years.

And always remember: old rockers never die.

Iván Monreal Somm. Culture, history and passion for wine.

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