LA RIOJANA CELEBRATES MILESTONE ANNIVERSARY

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La Riojana - 2020 harvest inauguration (a).jpg

This year marks a significant milestone for La Riojana co-operative, as we enter our 80th anniversary of wine making, a milestone commemorated on Wednesday 6th February 2020 with the official start of our 2020 harvest. 

To celebrate our 80-year long history of wine making, our co-operative directors, growers and workers were joined by a number of local dignitaries, including the Ricardo Quintela and Florencia López, Governor and Vice Governor of La Rioja Province respectively, at a special ceremony held in our Central Bodega in Chilecito. 

During the celebrations, La Rioja’s Governor and other members of local government also took the opportunity to visit our most notable Fairtrade funded projects centred around the village of Tilimuqui. This included the village water facility and secondary school, as well as the soon-to-be-built health centre project. Three different projects which impressed the Governor and his colleagues by their scale, socio-economic impact and benefits for the local population.  

This year’s harvest also represents a major accomplishment in terms of our commitment to sustainable and responsible winemaking with the eagerly awaited production of our first biodynamic wines. The result of an initiative taken in 2017 to plant eight hectares of vineyards under biodynamic regulations.

The exciting start of the 2020 harvest also heralds the start of nine to ten weeks of intense activity for the co-operative, its growers and vineyard workers. Rodolfo Griguol, Chief Winemaker, comments “The 2020 harvest promises to be an excellent quality vintage for La Riojana, with our vineyards yielding ripe, healthy grapes and with our first wines already exhibiting very good aromas and colour.”

RAZA LAUNCHES IN THE NETHERLANDS

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In October 2019, La Riojana toasted the successful launch of Raza, its flagship brand, in Holland with the introduction of two wines Raza Fairtrade Torrontes Chardonnay 2019, a dry white wine with a fresh fruity taste and Raza Fairtrade Shiraz Malbec 2019, a medium bodied red wine with chocolate, blackberry aromas and a pleasant spicy finish.

These two Fairtrade wines were launched by the Dutch supermarket chain Coop Supermarkten to coincide with Fairtrade Week in the Netherlands, which ran from 26th October to 3rd November 2019. 

The success of the launch has been such that the first container of Raza sold within just three weeks and the next order is already on its way. 


The people featured in the image (left to right) are: Co-op (Holland) Category Manager Patrick Rekers; Co-op (Holland) Corporate Communications Manager Yvonne van Asselt; La Riojana Europe Sales Director Europe Nick Day; Intense Wines Owner Janneke Rutten.