July 2025 Crianza Club

Señorio De P. Peciña 2018  Crianza Rioja Regular Price: $26.99 Club Price: $22.94 Buy Now

Front matter: all images courtesy Hermanos Pecina (website, instagram).

We’ve been to Rioja multiple times, and in each visit, one truth keeps surfacing: the wines we love the most (the ones we come home talking about the most) almost always come from La Rioja Alta, and more specifically, from the vineyard surrounding the village of San Vicente de la Sonsierra. It’s not the modern architecture, flashy, big estate part of Rioja, but it’s where the magic grounded in history happens.  Grapes from old vines growing in a patchwork of limestone hills, Atlantic breezes, and a deep-rooted culture of winemaking that doesn’t chase trends all coalesce into that “je ne sais quoi” that makes us go oohh and ahh not just at scenery like that below, but at all the wines that come from it. 

Bodegas Hermanos Peciña captures everything we admire about this place. Founded in 1992 by Pedro Peciña after decades working at La Rioja Alta (yes, that La Rioja Alta), the winery sticks to a traditional path: estate-grown grapes (more on that below), organic farming, native yeasts, and long, slow aging in used American oak. They rack every barrel by hand, every six months, the old-fashioned way, not because it’s nostalgic, but because it makes better wine.  

And, since winemaking technique means nothing if it's not applied to good fruit, a closer look at their vineyards is very important.

Peciña’s vineyards are a study in balance — between altitude and aspect, tradition and precision. Spread across 50 hectares around San Vicente de la Sonsierra, each parcel brings something distinct to the table. Finca Iscorta, the oldest and most emblematic, is a 50-year-old bush-trained vineyard where Tempranillo, Garnacha, and Viura ripen slowly on a north-facing slope at 500 meters. From there, the vineyards climb even higher: Salinillas sits over 600 meters in the foothills of the Toloño Mountains — the western edge of Rioja DOCa — delivering the acidity and freshness that define Peciña’s style. El Codo, a dramatic, stony hillside vineyard ranging from 485 to 575 meters, yields deeply concentrated fruit from its stressed, well-drained soils. La Liende, La Peña, and Llano each add their own layers, from the water-retentive floodplain soils that keep vines digging deep, to the high-altitude limestone plots that offer structure, spice, and purity. Even their youngest planting, La Veguilla, along the banks of the Ebro, contributes bright, floral energy to the blend. Finally, La Tejera’s Garnacha and Valseca’s Tempranillo — grown near the winery in clay-limestone soils with good wind exposure — round out the picture with finesse, tannic grip, and lift. These are vineyards with personality, shaped by place, farmed with care, and blended to capture the soul of Sonsierra.

We keep returning to these bottles year after year because they’re honest. They’re elegant without being precious. They show the power of restraint and the beauty of time. Whether it’s their Crianza, Reserva, or Gran Reserva, Peciña delivers Rioja that’s timeless, grounded, and completely compelling.  While we often make fun of their overly staid, plain, and excessively old fashioned serif font labels (which honestly really contributes to the wine getting passed by), it is one of the best picks on our shelves and precisely because of said label it’s one of our best-kept secrets.

If you think “Crianza” means simple or entry-level, this bottle will reset your expectations. Peciña’s 2018 Crianza is hands-down one of the best in Rioja, a benchmark for what this category can be when treated with care and patience. Aged two full years in used American oak and racked four times by hand, it’s polished but not glossy, structured but not stiff.

What we love most is its clarity. You get all the hallmarks of classic Rioja — red cherry, dried herbs, warm spice, sandalwood — but with a cool, lifted quality that speaks to the altitude and limestone soils of San Vicente. There’s just a whisper of savory age starting to emerge, but this is still very much in its prime, with plenty of energy and grip.  Upon tasting, this wine simply swept us off our feet.  It is as fresh as classic gets, and shows incredible balance between fruit and aging.  It’s a wine that punches well above its serif-font plain label: a true Crianza, yes, but with the quiet confidence of a Reserva. A grilled lamb chop wouldn’t complain, and the steak below (suggestion courtesy Bodegas Pecina) will absolutely sing.  So will you when you take the first sip. 

Margón 2021 Primeur Prieto Picudo Regular Price: $19.99 Club Price: $16.99 Buy Now

A few months back, we had booked a rare cellar release from this producer in our Tinto Club, and this month we found ourselves in the fortunate position of being able to book one of their current releases for our Crianza! If you're interested, we still have a couple bottles left of the ‘14 single vineyard Margón! For wine enthusiasts, this wine dials the ‘cool’ factor to up to 11. First we need to back up and talk a bit about Raúl Pérez. Probably one of more stylistically unique producers under the New Spain Movement, Pérez balances rustic elegance with serious, ageworthy structure. In 1995, he teamed up with Eugenio González on a passion project that would eventually become Bodegas Margón. The two were interested in an obscure variety, Prieto Picudo, and its representation in a few ancient vineyards just outside of León. 

Raúl Pérez

In the years following, the duo tinkered with the indigenous grape to try to determine how best to farm and vinify the variety. Many of these vineyard sites had pre-phylloxera rootstock, meaning that they survived the blight that ravaged Europe in the latter half of the 19th century. The arid climate and sandy soils make the ground inhospitable for the Phylloxera parasite, and while the pest still bothers grape growers worldwide, Bodegas Margón’s vineyards are largely protected. 

The Phylloxera Parasite

After ten years of rediscovering the things Prieto Pecudo is capable of, the Peréz and González teamed up with entrepreneur Alfredo Martínez Cuervo and in 2006, Margón was founded. The estate farms 75 different plots, which only encompass around 19 hectares. Most vines they work with are over 100 years old, and in total the vines vary between 90 and northwards of 120 years of age. 

One of Margón's bush-trained vineyards

Prieto Picudo is kind of a funny looking grape, in a good way. The grape grows in tightly packed clusters and sort of has a pine nut shape, with an elongated body that narrows at the end. The vines themselves are head-trained and bush pruned, meaning they kinda look more of a low shrub rather than the T-shaped trellises that are more common in the viticultural world. The high ratio of skins to flesh make the wine especially tannic and structured, so look for a firm, grippy mouthfeel on this wine. 

Fruiting (underripe) Prieto Picudo

However, the personality of this month’s Wine Club  remains quite elegant and bright. Both estate and purchased fruit went into this cuvee, as it is an expression of Prieto Picudo that is meant to be drunk in its youth. The fruit was completely destemmed and enjoyed both a long maceration and a long, slow fermentation in open-top wooden vats. On the nose, the wine has a unique earthy spice aroma. The palate is more composed of crunchy blackberry and raspberry notes with a touch of smoke, mineral, and a hint of wood, even though this wine was solely aged in large-format used oak barrels. Refreshing acidy and classically grippy, yet polished, tannins make this a versatile, food friendly wine. After decanting, treat as you would a Nebbiolo and enjoy with braised meats, mushroom rice dishes, or Fabada.