El Pacto

"There were two Riojas: one with the warehouses in Haro, the Rioja of the Industrial Revolution, with cellars that stored wine purchased from growers like my family and Raúl's, and another, previously unknown Rioja: one of village wines, family wines," explains Richi Arambarri, CEO of wine company Vintae. "For decades, grapes were grown in very poor areas, which were ideal for vines, and they were farmed with a
non-interventionist approach, never in pursuit of high yields," he adds. "With the boom of Rioja in the mid-20th century, growers abandoned Garnacha and those poor, difficult to farm soils, in favour of more productive vineyards. As high-yielding clones were developed, the focus shifted towards ensuring
steady crops and quantity over quality.”
With Viñedos El Pacto we return to the very origin that binds growers to their surroundings. We want to capture the style of wines made in the vineyard more than 50 years ago; the know-how of which plot or part of the village was the best, which was then reflected in the finest wines. El Pacto seeks to recreate this sense of place in the wines with a glimpse into the past, into the expertise of the winegrowing families, the result of years of dedication to the vineyards.
The first El Pacto wine, which was released in 2009, was the cornerstone of a project that is now bigger, more ambitious and, also, more heartfelt. From the vineyards in the Sonsierra and Alto Najerilla comes a collection of wines anchored to their origin in many ways. Emotionally rooted in these lands, they are the liquid testimony of decades of labour by people
who never worked to a timetable or flinched when the long winter snows covered the ground.
A pact of gratitude and continuity that brings together past and present to safeguard the future of this rich heritage.