Marques de Caceres - Rioja Crianza

In 1970, Enrique Forner founded Marqués de Cáceres, Unión Vitivinícola, S.A., bringing to life the connections between a region (Cenicero, La Rioja Alta), an enterprising family that has been devoted to the wine trade for five generations, the best vine growers and vineyards in La Rioja, and a Bordeaux concept which revolutionized the production and business model with a single objective: to produce the best possible wines–an obsession that continues today through the leadership of Cristina Forner, the third generation of this wine family.

From childhood Enrique Forner worked in the wine trade. His family founded Vinícola Forner in 1920 in Valencia. Exiled as a result of the Spanish Civil War, Enrique founded a wine company in France, and in 1963 bought two chateaux grands crus classés in the Haut Medoc region (Bordeaux), Château Camensac and Château Larose Trintaudon, both fine wine properties.

Upon his return to Spain, he turned to Emile Peynaud, the éminence grise of Bordeaux winemaking, with the idea of introducing the best winemaking practices from the French region to La Rioja.

Wine production at Marqués de Cáceres starts with the best fruit, currently sourcing grapes from around 985 hectares. Since it was founded, Marqués de Cáceres has had a guaranteed supply of grapes from privileged areas of high-quality vineyards, principally located in areas of the Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa sub-regions, and particularly in the town of Cenicero where the winery is situated. Most of these relationships can be traced to the founding of the winery with either the original winegrowers or their descendants. Many of the vines are over thirty years old. The harvest calendar is determined by the Marqués de Cáceres oenological team, based on regular visits to every plot.

In terms of style, Marqués de Cáceres wines follow the new style of Rioja, moving away from the traditional emphasis on oak in order to produce wines that have rich concentration and intense fruit and aromas.