Valdemar was inspired by its experience in the United States to create a Rioja far removed from the traditional canons.
A Rioja that was unlike any other. This was the ambitious desire of Ana and Jesús Martínez Bujanda when they began to participate in the management of Bodegas Valdemar as members of the 5th generation of this family business which is now 133 years old, but which has always been characterised by its pioneering and innovative spirit.
A challenge that they have been able to materialise as a result of their successful venture in the United States, where they opened the first non-American winery in the state of Washington, in 2019, Valdemar Estates.
Although the initial idea when they started this ambitious project was to create new styles of wine that would fuse American fruit with Rioja tradition and know-how, the symbiosis between the American winery and the Rioja winery showed that the journey could also be made in reverse.
As Ana Martínez Bujanda, 5th generation of the family explains, “This is how Valdemar Inspiración was born Valdemar inspiration, a wine created with unquestionably Riojan raw materials, but inspired by the young, creative and transgressive spirit that characterises the Walla Walla wine region”, the place where the Valdemar Estates headquarters were established in 2019.
An unprecedented wine that honours Valdemar’s pioneering tradition and that its creators define as “independent, modern and with its own personality”, by moving away from the established canons of traditional Rioja wines.
New airs that are also reflected in its bottle, much lighter and sustainable, and in the labelling devised by the same American architecture studio that designed the Walla Walla winery.
Together, they make up the perfect calling card for this surprising blend of Tempranillo, Graciano and Maturana.
A choice of varieties that, evidently, was not accidental either.
Bodegas Valdemar has been championing for years the recovery and preservation of the Graciano and Maturana varieties, indigenous to Rioja A traditional raw material very close to its roots which, nevertheless, they dared to add American nuances in a winemaking process influenced and enriched by the conversations between the technical director of Valdemar, Antonio Orte, and Devyani, the winemaker of the American winery.
The result is a creative and transgressive wine, which combines the power of red fruits with aromas of cocoa and scrubland herbs. The experience is completed with a sweet, tasty and fruity entry on the palate with a long and elegant finish.
A bet that is already beginning to find its place on the menus of the most select restaurants, and with which Valdemar hopes to reach the palate (and the heart) of a young audience, lovers of good wines and eager for new oenological experiences.
