Ramón Bilbao

From the bodega on Cuevas Street to an international brand

It started with a grain store: Ramón Bilbao Murga moved to Haro in 1914, bought plots along the road to Casalarreina, and began planting Tempranillo vines. In 1924, he opened his own bodega on Cuevas Street — exactly there, in the historic center of Rioja Alta, the winery is still located today. Two years after its founding, the Rioja received its Denominación de Origen, and Ramón Bilbao was part of this regulated wine culture from the very beginning. Changes in generations and ownership followed: after the death of the last family heir without a successor in the 1960s, the bodega was continued as a company before the Zamora Company took over the house in 1999. With the takeover came Rodolfo Bastida — a Riojan, oenologist, and managing director of the house ever since — who initiated a fundamental modernization without abandoning its classic origins.

Terroir, precision, and a clear commitment to climate protection

Ramón Bilbao now manages around 250 hectares of its own vineyards — distributed across the Rioja Alta, the Rioja Oriental, and the white wine site Finca Las Amedias in Rueda, at an altitude of 770 meters with sandy soils for Verdejo and Sauvignon Blanc. In the Rioja, Bastida's team specifically focuses on high altitudes, where lower temperatures and better ventilation significantly reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides. Organic sheep manure replaces synthetic fertilizer, and pheromone traps protect the grapes during harvest. Precision viticulture using data from local weather stations controls irrigation and treatment needs per plot. In 2018, Ramón Bilbao became the first winery in Spain to be certified by the organization Wineries for Climate Protection for its cellars and vineyards — a milestone on which the bodega has continued to build ever since: membership in the International Wineries for Climate Action, conversion to renewable energies, and the declared goal of climate neutrality by 2050.

In the cellar, the team works consistently with traceability: every wine type has its own grape source and processing line. For the flagship Mirto, for example, a short cold maceration is followed by fermentation with daily remontage and pigeage; the wine is only filtered at the end of the process. This attention to detail in the cellar continues in the handling of barrels and maturation time — depending on the line, in American or French oak.

Tempranillo in all states of matter — from Crianza to Mirto

The range spans a wide arc that shows the different faces of the Rioja. The Crianza stands for the accessible, fruit-forward entry into the Ramón Bilbao style: fresh red fruit, soft tannin, a hint of vanilla from the American oak barrel. The Reserva — a cuvée of Tempranillo with portions of Mazuelo and Graciano from over 40-year-old bush vines — spends 20 months in American oak and subsequently shows the classic Rioja tension between red fruit and balsamic notes with a dry, long spice. The Gran Reserva continues this line and remains characterized on the palate by aromas of dried plum, licorice, and cedar wood, without losing its freshness. The Mirto marks the ambitious peak: 100% Tempranillo from top sites, aged in French oak, with a more structured body, dark fruit, and a velvety finish. The portfolio is complemented by the Rosado — fresh and dry for warm evenings — as well as the Verdejo from Rueda, which covers the white wine side of the house: mineral, with a fine citrus structure. Those who drink their way through the lines get a complete picture of what an Atlantic-influenced climate, clay-rich soil, and a consistent craft style can extract from the Tempranillo grape.