About Solar de Urbezo winery

In 1995 Santiago Gracia Ysiegas founded Bodegas Solar de Urbezo to continue his family’s winemaking tradition. The winery is located in Cariñena, 45km away from Saragossa.

Cariñena has one of the longest winemaking histories in Spain. It goes back to the 3rd century, when this region was inhabited by the Romans.

Solar de Urbezo takes its name from the talented painter Antonio Urbezo who was born in Cariñena and developed his career in Bilbao. Santiago Gracia chose the name in recognition of his art and the affection that the painter showed towards his family and the land of Cariñena. Solar de Urbezo’s gallery features, amongst other works, a portrait of Manuela Ysiegas, Santiago’s mother.

This winery sources grapes from their 100ha of vineyards of 40-70 year old vines. Varieties include grenache, carignan, tempranillo, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, syrah and chardonnay. Plantation follows a 2.20 by 2.20sqm pattern. Altitude, continental climate with cold winters and hot summers, scarce rainfall of 375litres/sqm-year and a thick gravel soil, with medium size stones covering half of the land, and profound clay subsoil, plus traditional pruning in winter and green pruning in May are all essential contributing factors for the vines to develop their full potential and offer yields as low as 2.7Kg/vine of high quality berries.

The development of grapes on the vine is analysed every week with careful attention to parameters such as acidity, weight, pH, density, etc. which permit the determination of the likely alcohol content. The line of ripening is established to determine the optimum harvest time. This line of ripening is determined for each grape variety to enable differentiated varietal production.

Traceability starts immediately after harvest, when the grapes arrive at the winery. The delivery note indicates: grape variety, number of fermentation tank, name of plot, temperature, total acidity, pH and density to determinate the sugar content.

The varieties used to produce Viña Urbezo "carbonic maceration", are harvested by hand and the whole clusters are placed in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. Other varieties are previously destemmed, gently crushed and then fermented. Selected yeasts are added to the wine.

A different process, carbonic semi-maceration, is used to process carbernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah.

Fermentation temperature control is very important. It is set at 28ºC and maintained with a cold water refrigeration circuit around the steel tanks. Wine is then taken out after six to ten days. During this fermentation period stirring is carried out three or four times a day. After racking the produced wine, the remaining grapes are pressed. Once alcoholic fermentation has come to an end, malolactic fermentation is performed in order to transform malic acids into lactic ones.

The winemaking process finishes with the varietal tasting to allocate different batches for unoaked wines and those that will undergo crianza or reserva oakageing.