Meet Berarte: The Family Organic Winery Behind Our Rioja Alavesa

Behind every wine on a credible list there should be a real place and a real family. For the Rioja in the La Dehesa range, that family is Berarte, a small, third-generation, organic winery in the heart of Rioja Alavesa. If our guide to explains the region, this is the producer that brings it to life: a working estate farming its own fruit and making wine to a standard, not a volume.

Place, Origin Verified

Berarte is based in Villabuena de Álava, a village in Rioja Alavesa often called one of Spain's great wine towns for the sheer density of bodegas around it. The estate sits in the cool, high, limestone-soiled corner of Rioja, between the Sierra de Cantabria mountains and the Ebro river. That shelter and elevation give Rioja Alavesa its signature: bright acidity, lifted aromatics, and elegant structure. It is the subzone serious lists lean on, and Berarte is rooted in it.

Product, the wines

Berarte farms around 14 hectares of its own vineyards and makes a tight, considered range of eight wines under D.O.Ca. Rioja: four reds, three whites, and a rosé. The reds are built on Tempranillo, the grape that gives Rioja its backbone, structured, savoury, age-worthy, and run across the classic ageing styles from fresh young wines to oak-aged Crianza and Reserva. The whites and the rosé round out a range that can cover a by-the-glass list from aperitivo to main course. A small portfolio, made carefully, rather than a vast catalogue.

People, who made it

This is the part that matters most. Berarte is family-owned and now run by the third generation, growers who farm their own vineyards organically and made the choice to work with nature rather than against it. They invested in new facilities in 2018 to make the wines exactly as they want them, but the scale stays small and the philosophy stays the same: estate fruit, ecological farming, and wine made by the people who grew the grapes. Sourcing from a producer like this is what separates a considered Rioja listing from a generic "house red", and it gives your floor team a true story to tell.

Plate, how to use it on a list

Berarte's strength is its food-friendliness, and it pairs straight back across the La Dehesa range. A structured Tempranillo Crianza or Reserva stands up to the melting fat of without flattening it, carries a sharing *chuletón* of beautifully, and matches aged sheep cheeses on a . The younger reds and the rosé suit charcuterie and tapas, and the whites bridge to seafood, conservas, and aperitivo plates. One small estate can anchor much of a Spanish wine offer.

Value, why it earns its place

A family organic estate gives you something a generic Rioja cannot: a genuine provenance and sustainability story at a sensible price. Organic, estate-grown Rioja Alavesa reads as premium and ethical on a list, yet a Crianza pours at a comfortable by-the-glass margin. It lets you offer a wine with a real name and a real face behind it, the kind of detail that justifies the pour and builds trust, without pushing into trophy-bottle pricing.

The bottom line

Berarte is the human side of Rioja: a third-generation family in Villabuena de Álava, farming 14 hectares organically and making eight carefully crafted wines in the cool heart of Rioja Alavesa. It is the producer behind the Rioja in the La Dehesa range, and it pairs straight across our charcuterie, beef, and cheese. Real place, real family, real wine.

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Related reading from the La Dehesa journal

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Berarte's organic Rioja Alavesa is available to Irish trade through La Dehesa, to pair with our charcuterie, conservas, beef, and cheese. or message us on to build a Spanish list around your menu. Explore the full .

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Sources

• Berarte Viñedos y Bodegas, Official site: https://berarte.es/en/
• Berarte Viñedos y Bodegas, Vineyards & winery: http://berarte.es/en/vineyards-winery/
• Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja, Berarte: https://riojawine.com/en-us/bodegas-rioja/berarte-vinedos-y-bodegas-sl/