When we talk about a revolution, we often think of drastic changes, of breaking away from the past. However, there are revolutions that emerge not from rejection, but from a return. A return to where it all began. In Labastida, a small village in the Rioja Alavesa where wine is an integral part of the landscape and character, five winemakers have decided that their revolution would be precisely about looking back.
This is how Cosecheros de Labastida was born, a project that does not seek to reinvent wine, but to recapture the essence of the cosechero: one who works his own land, produces with his own grapes, and bottles without artifice or intermediaries. With the support of Telmo Rodríguez and the Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri, these five men—Jorge Gil, Íñigo Perea, Luis Salazar, Alain Quintana, and Alberto Martínez—are restoring Labastida's most authentic voice. A voice that speaks of landscape, family, and time.
Among them, Luis Salazar epitomises that blend of heritage and conviction like no other. A fifth-generation winemaker, he fondly recalls how his grandfather would punish him by making him work in the family vineyard. “What was once a punishment is now my life,” he says, while gazing at the vines of Los Herreros, the estate that lends its name to his wine.
Situated on a slope sheltered from the wind, the vineyard was planted and grafted by his father's uncle, using a massal selection of the finest family vines. No laboratory has intervened here, only experience and tradition accumulated over decades.
The production of Los Herreros adheres to the same philosophy: hand-picking of tempranillo, garnacha, and viura in small crates, grain-by-grain selection, fermentation with native yeasts, and a long repose in French and American oak barrels, where the wine matures for 12 to 18 months before resting for another 2 years in the bottle.
Los Herreros de Luis Salazar is a wine that is serious yet approachable, with the elegance of simplicity and the depth of craftsmanship. A red wine that does not seek to impress, but to endure. Like the revolution from which it originates: one where, instead of looking outward, they chose to look inward.