Rioja Gran Reserva, Bodegas Carlos Serres

Bodegas Carlos Serres

Carlos (Charles) Serres was born in Orléans in 1862 and was a well known wine consultant when Alfonse Vigier charged him with finding a wine region outside France that was able to produce high quality wines.

Serres had already come across a unique terroir during his frequent travels that reminded him of the best terroirs in Bordeaux. Near a small town called Haro in a region known as Rioja. In 1885 Carlos Serres moved to Haro to establish a new style of wine with an international profile and a Bordeaux soul.

In 1896, Carlos Serres established the first winery registered as an 'export merchant' with the goal of satisfying the tastes and appetites of the international wine consumer. The original building was in the famous Barrio de La Estacion next to Haro's railway station. It was there that Carlos Serres brought his French winemaking traditions to bear on the vinification and ageing of his new wines, and also drove the business' focus on exporting its wines. By the middle of the 20th Century the winery was moved to its current location by the need to grow and expand.

The winery still respects the legacy and traditions of its founder. Concrete tanks protect the fruit characters and expressions of each of the varieties with the continuous micro-oxygenation produced by their natural porosity.

The Bordeaux style, established by Carlos Serres, giving the wine its spicy, vanilla notes, still comes from using French and American oak barrels from the best coopers, slumbering in a new 5000 barrel cellar.